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. 2021 Jan 29;4:144. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01652-x

Fig. 1. Glucose treatment induced increase of DPP4 levels, EMT process, oxidative stress generation, and inflammation in mesothelial cells.

Fig. 1

a Met-5A cells were exposed in 0, 12.5, 25 mM D-glucose, and 2 ng/ml TGF-β1 recombinant protein for 120 h and observed cell morphology by microcopy at 200×. The Met-5A cells were changed from cobble stone shapes to fibroblast-liked morphologies in glucose-dependent manner. TGF-β1 treatment was as a positive control of EMT. Scale bars: 50 μm. b Western blotting was performed to detect the protein levels of DPP4, p-SMAD3, and GLP-1. Quantitative results were shown in the right panel. The relative levels were normalized and compared by 0 mM glucose concentration. c Western blotting was performed to detect the protein levels of the mesenchymal markers (type I collagen, fibronectin, α-SMA, vimentin, Snail) and epithelial marker (ZO-1). d Glucose treatment enhanced phosphorylated NF-kB activation, elevated the levels of ROS generated enzyme (NOX-1, NOX-2) but declined antioxidant enzymes (SOD1, NQO1) to cause ROS accumulation detected by immunoblotting. Data represents the analysis of at least 3 independent experiments and shows mean ± SD. * indicates p-value <0.05; ** represents p-value <0.01; and *** is p-value <0.001.