Figure 4.
p45 NFE2 interaction with DJ-1 in ATII cells and lung tissue obtained from non-smokers (NS), smokers (SM) and patients with emphysema (E). DJ-1 was co-immunoprecipitated in freshly isolated ATII cells (A) or lung tissue (B) followed by Western blotting analysis to determine its interaction with p45 NFE2 or p18 NFE2 as described in Materials and Methods. Relative expression is also shown. (C) p45 NFE2 (green) and DJ-1 (red) expression in ATII cells identified using SP-A staining (violet) in lung tissue by immunohistofluorescence. Cell nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). The strongest co-localization of p45 NFE2 and DJ-1 is indicated by white arrows. *Statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). Data are shown as the mean (±s.e.m.).