Figure 3

Silica augments processing and secretion of inflammatory mediators and DAMPs in bronchial epithelial cells. A. Western blot analysis was conducted on whole cell lysates of BEAS-2B cells to detect cleaved IL-1β products, after 24 h of silica exposure with or without priming with 5μg/mL LPS for 4h. Histogram represents results of densitometric analysis of cleaved IL-1β normalized to β-actin. B. Western blot analysis of HMGB1 release in the concentrated SN from silica exposed BEAS-2B cells. Histogram represents results of semi-quantitative densitometric analysis of the HMGB1 signal expressed as arbitrary units. Data are presented as mean fold change ± SEM with * p-value <0.05 compared to UC and # p-value <0.05 compared to SIL150 or LPS+SIL150.