Table 1.
Relationship between pressure and distance.
Fig 1.
(A) The shock tube and compressed air bottle. (B) Diagram of the shock tube.
Table 2.
IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and β-actin primers for RT-PCR.
Fig 2.
PFC inhibits blast–induced morphological changes in A549 cells.
(A) (E) (I) Control group. (B) (F) (J) Blast group. (C) (G) (K) Blast +PFC group. (D) (H) (L)PFC group. (tubulin, red color; F-actin, green; and nuclei, blue). (Scale bars: 100 μm in (A, B, C, D) (scale bars: 10 μm in (D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K).
Fig 3.
Effect of PFC on apoptosis in A549 cells.
(A) After treatment with PFC for 6 h, apoptosis was observed using Annexin V/PI as previously described. (B) Analysis of the percentage of cells in apoptosis. Each bar represents the means of three independent experiments. * p<0.05 compared to the Control group, * p<0.05 compared to the Blast+PFC group.
Fig 4.
Effect of PFC on Bax, Bcl-2, and cleaved caspase-3 expression in A549 cells.
(A) Western blot analysis was used on the protein lysates purified from A549 cells in different groups. β-actin was used as a control. (B) Densitometric analysis of Bax protein. (C) Densitometric analysis of Bcl-2 protein. (D) Analysis of the Bcl-2/Bax ratio. (E) Densitometric analysis of cleaved caspase-3 protein. * p<0.05 compared to the Control group, * p<0.05 compared to the Blast+PFC group.
Fig 5.
Protein and mRNA expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α of A549 cells.
(A) IL-1β, (B) IL-6 and, (C) TNF-α concentrations. (D) IL-1β, (E) IL-6, and (F) TNF-α mRNA expression. Results of three separate experiments are displayed in graphs and are expressed as the means ± SD. *p<0.05 compared to the Blast group, and & p<0.05 compared to the Blast group. Note: B: Blast group; B+P: Blast+PFC group; P: PFC group; C: Control group.
Fig 6.
Effects of PFC on MDA and SOD in A549 cells exposed to blast waves.
(A) MDA level. (B) SOD activity. Results of three separate experiments are displayed in graphs and are expressed as the means ± mean±SD. *p<0.05 compared to the Blast group, and & p<0.05 compared to the blast group. Note: B: Blast group; B+P: Blast+PFC group; P: PFC group; C: Control group.
Fig 7.
Effects of PFC on NF-κB p65, p-ERK, JNK, and p-P38 expression in A549 Cells.
(A) Western blot analysis was used to assess NF-κB protein from lysates purified from A549 cells in different groups. β-actin was used as a control. (B) Densitometric analysis of blots is shown in A. (C) Western blot analysis was used to assess p-P38 protein in lysates purified from A549 cells in different groups. (D) Densitometric analysis of blots is shown in C. (E) Western blot analysis was used to assess the p-ERK protein in lysates purified from A549 cells in different groups. (F) Densitometric analysis of blots is shown in E. (G) Western blot analysis was used to assess the p-P38 protein in lysates purified from A549 cells in different groups. (H) Densitometric analysis of the blots is shown in G. Results were collected using the same method from three independent experiments; each was performed in triplicate. * p<0.05 vs blast group, and& p<0.05 vs blast group. Note: B: Blast group; B+P: Blast+PFC group; P: PFC group; C: Control group.
Fig 8.
Schematic outlining the possible mechanism of PFC inhibition of blast-induced A549 cell injury.