Research Article

Effects of 18β-Glycyrrhetinic Acid on Fungal Protease-Induced Airway Inflammatory Responses

Figure 5

Effects of GA on the expression of UCP-2 and on mitochondrial ROS in the context of UCP-2 knockdown. (a) The UCP-2 protein level was determined by Western blot analysis in BEAS2B cells after GA treatment of Aspergillus protease-stimulated cells. Images were acquired using LAS and quantified with ImageJ. β-Actin was used as an internal control. (b) UCP-2 mRNA expression levels were normalized to the expression of β-actin mRNA as a control. (c) The level of mitochondrial ROS in GA-treated BEAS2B cells with UCP-2 knockdown under Aspergillus protease stimulation. NC siRNA: negative-control siRNA-transfected cells; UCP-2 siRNA: UCP-2 siRNA-transfected cells (magnification 130x, scale bar = 20 μm). and compared with the Aspergillus protease stimulation-only group, compared with the control group.
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