Figure 3
Effect of EGF and RA on the barrier properties of BBEC cultures. BBEC cultures were grown for 21 days at an ALI with varying concentrations of EGF or RA before fixation. Tight-junction formation of the BBEC cultures grown in the presence of (A) EGF or (B) RA was subsequently assessed by immunostaining (tight-junctions - green; nuclei - blue). Representative images are shown of BBECs grown in the presence of (i) 0 and (ii) 10 ng/ml EGF in (A) (see Fig. S3C) and (i) 0 and (ii) 100 nM RA in (B) (see Fig. S5C). Tight-junction integrity during the course of epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation was also assessed by measuring the TEER of BBEC cultures grown in the presence of (C) 0, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 25.0 and 50.0 ng/ml EGF and (D) 0, 25, 50, 100 and 250 nM RA. Three inserts were analysed per growth condition and the data represents the mean +/− standard deviation from tissue derived from three different animals.
