Fig. 1. Effects of whey protein on the viability and AQPs expression of HaCaT cells.

(A) Effects of 0–400 μg/mL colostrum whey, milk whey, fermented colostrum whey, and fermented milk whey on the viability of HaCaT cells. The cell viability was measured by the MTT assay. Results expressed as a % of control absorbance. Data were presented as the means±SE values of three independent experiments (n=3). (B) PCR analysis of AQP expression in cultured HaCaT cells. RNA (1.5 μg) was reverse-transcribed into first-strand cDNA and amplified by PCR, using AQP (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10)-specific primers. AQP-3 is the most abundant AQP in HaCaT cells. AQP-3 expression was detected in DU145 cells, which served as the positive controls.