Fig. 5.

Cd-induced vimentin fragmentation and secretion can be inhibited by both AKT and cdc2 inhibitors. A: mice (n = 5) were treated intratracheally with saline or CdCl₂ (0.009 or 0.018 mg/kg) as shown in Fig. 1. Plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) were collected at week 4 and the vimentin levels were examined by ELISA. Horizontal bars indicate the mean values. B: primary lung fibroblasts were incubated with or without CdCl₂ (20 μM) for 3 h and then allowed to recover for the indicated periods of time, and the supernatants were collected, concentrated by ultrafiltration and equal aliquots were analyzed by Western blotting using an anti-vimentin antibody. C: cells were pretreated with the AKT inhibitor (LY; 20 μM), the cdc2 inhibitor (RO; 10 μM), or a combination of AKT and cdc2 inhibitors (LY + RO) for 1 h, followed by 20 μM of CdCl₂ treatment for 3 h and then allowed to recover for 48 h. Supernatants was analyzed as above. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. Arrows represent positions for the indicated molecular weight. The data are representative of 3 independent experiments.