Fig. 5.

Cigarette smoke disrupts activation of interferon response factor 3 (IRF3). SAEC were exposed to air or cigarette smoke for 60 min and then treated with poly I:C. Levels of total and phosphorylated IRF3 were measured in lysates 4 h posttreatment with poly I:C. A: representative Western blot with 2 replicate cultures at each condition. B: densitometry of 3 replicate treatments is shown. C: IRF3 mRNA was quantified 6 h posttreatment with poly I:C. **P < 0.01 by 2-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc correction. Bars are means ± SD of triplicate cultures from 1 donor and are representative of experiments done in 3 strains of SAEC.