Fig. 1

Effects of ESPs on the secretion of inflammatory cytokines (TGF-β1 and IL-6), cell morphology and EMT- and fibrosis-related protein expression. H69 and LX2 cells were treated with 1.6 μg/ml ESPs for 24 h. The supernatants were harvested, and the secretion levels of the cytokines TGF-β1 (A) and IL-6 (B) were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data represent the means ± SE for 3e independent experiments. Single asterisk (*)/single hash sign (#) indicate significant difference at P < 0.05; double asterisks (**)/double hash signs (##) indicate significant difference at P < 0.01, with the asterisks referring to control vs ESPs-treated cells, and the hash signs referring to ESP-treated H69 vs ESP-treated LX2 cells. C Representative light microscope images of ESP-treated cells. Black arrowheads indicate the morphology of fibroblast-like cells. Scale bar: 100 μm, original magnification: ×40. D Representative immunoblotting showing the expression of TGF-β1-, IL-6-, EMT- and fibrosis-related proteins. Protein bands were quantified using densitometry, and GAPDH was used as a normalization loading control. Data in graphs are represented as fold changes relative to the untreated control and expressed as the mean ± SE of 3 independent experiments. Single asterisk indicates a significant difference at P < 0.05 for untreated control vs ESP-treated cells. Con, Untreated control; EMT, epithelial-mesenchymal transition; ESP, excretory-secretory products; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; IL, interleukin; SE, standard error; TGF-β1, transforming growth factor beta 1