Fig. 7.

ALA prevents the HS-induced upregulation of TGF-β and COX-2 mRNA expression. Caco-2 cells grown on inserts and pretreated with ALA (24 h) were exposed to HS (42 °C, 6h) to evaluate the mRNA expression of TGF-β and COX-2 (qRT-PCR). Results are expressed as mRNA expression (normalized with β-actin) relative to unstimulated cells as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. Different lower case letters denote significant differences among groups