Figure 5.

Human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) were pretreated with brusatol (BT) or zinc protoporphyrin (ZnPP) in the presence of dimethyl itaconate (DI) and then incubated with Aspergillus fumigatus. (a, b) The upregulation of heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) protein expression by DI was inhibited at 8 h postinfection (p.i.) by BT pretreatment. Reverse transcriptase (RT)‐PCR and ELISA results demonstrated that the DI treatment induced downregulation of (c, d) interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β), (e, f) IL‐8 and (g, h) IL‐6 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression at 8 and 24 h p.i. in HCECs (n = 6) was inhibited by BT or ZnPP pretreatment. The experiments were repeated two times to ensure reproducibility. P‐values are presented as the mean ± s.e.m. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. A.f, Aspergillus fumigatus; N, normal HCECs; ns, no significance; PBS, phosphate‐buffered saline.