Figure 4.

S1 protein induced pulmonary endothelial activation and a pro-inflammatory response. HPAEC were incubated with S1 spike protein (25 nM) with or without HbA for 24 h. Following incubation and addition of S1 protein or HbA where indicated, the cells were lysed and the endothelial adhesion molecules (A) ICAM-1 and (B) VCAM-1 levels were measured by ELISA. Three major cytokines, e.g., (C) IL-1β, (D) CCL5, and (E) CXCL10 levels were also monitored by cytokine assay kits as described in Section 4. All bars represent average mean values as fold change over respective controls, each dot in the bars represent individual data points and vertical error bars represent SD (n = 4). whereas for IL-1 beta, CCL5, and CXCL10 (C–E), the values were expressed as per milligram protein. Unpaired Student’s t-test, statistical significance between groups were indicated by brackets with p values.