Figure 4.

Squamous epithelium-specific mRNA expression upon incubation of Het-1A and EPC2 cells with bile mixture (BM) at pH 5.0. Het-1A and EPC2 cell lines were incubated with BM (50 µM and 100 µM) in acidified medium (pH 5.0) or regular medium for six consecutive days and squamous epithelium-specific mRNA expression was analyzed by real-time PCR (A–J). PCR reaction was performed in duplicates and quantified using ACTB/GAPDH as reference genes. Data from three independent experiments are shown as the mean ± SEM. Significant change in gene expression after six days of treatment as compared with untreated control cells is indicated by an asterisk (*) (p < 0.05). A cross (+) indicates a significant change as compared with cells incubated with pH 5.0 alone (p < 0.05).