Figure 5.

(A) Changes in trans-epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) across differentiated Caco-2 monolayers after 24 h of incubation in the presence/absence of 10% SK brine or control medium (TEER_24h (Ω cm²)/TEER_0h (Ω cm²) × 100%). The threshold (100%) indicates the baseline TEER value. Different superscript letters indicate statistical significance between test substrates. (B) Gene expression of TJ proteins in Caco-2 cells after stimulation with 10% SK brine in Caco-2-PBMC co-culture in vitro model. Histograms represent the mean and error bars represent the standard deviation (n = 3). (C) Quantification of TJ proteins by Western blot. The molecular weight of each protein is described on the left side of the image. β-actin was used as the reference protein. Densitometric analysis by ImageJ software. (D) Fold change TJ protein expression normalized to medium control (Ctrl) samples. No significant differences were observed between different treatments and between different time points.