Fig. 2

Relative expression of epithelial and mesenchymal markers of BEAS-2B cells exposed to MWCNT. Relative expression of epithelial and mesenchymal markers were checked by qRT-PCR (a), WB (b), confocal microscopy (c) in BEAS-2B cells incubated for 96 h in either the absence (0 μg/ml, control) or presence of different concentrations of pMWCNT or MWCNTg. a Relative expression of E-cadherin, α-SMA and vimentin mRNA. Results were expressed in units of relative mRNA expression compared to control cells (n = 3; white bar = pMWCNT; black bar = MWCNTg). Versus control *p < 0.05, **p < 0.001, ***p < 0.0001; Versus control °p < 0.05, °°p < 0.001, °°°p < 0.0001. b Relative expression of E-cadherin, β-catenin, α-SMA and vimentin proteins. GAPDH and TBP were used as loading control for cytosolic and nuclear extracts respectively. Results were expressed in units of relative protein expression compared to control cells (white bar = pMWCNT; black bar = MWCNTg). Each figure is representative of three experiments giving similar results. Versus control *p < 0.05, **p < 0.001, ***p < 0.0001; Versus control °p < 0.05, °°p < 0.001, °°°p < 0.0001. c After the incubation in the absence (0 μg/ml, CTRL) or presence of 44 μg/ml MWCNT, the cells were rinsed with PBS, fixed with paraformaldehyde and probed as described in Methods. E-cadherin and α-SMA were visualized in green, β-catenin and vimentin in red. Representative images are shown (60×; scale bar = 10 μm)