CRF induces the expression of Cldn2 in epithelial cells.

<p>The tolerant HT-29 cells were treated with saline or CRF for 24 h; then all the cells were exposed to LPS (100 ng/ml) for another 24 h; the cell extracts were examined by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. A, the immune blots indicate the tight junction associated protein levels in gut epithelial cells. B, the bars indicate the summarized integrated density of the immune blots of panel A. C, the bars indicate the levels of mRNA of the 7 tight junction proteins in HT-29 cells. D–E, representative confocal images show the positive staining of Cldn2 on naïve (D) and CRF-treated (E) HT-29 cells. F is a negative staining control. The data of B and C were presented as mean ± SD. *, p<0.01, compared with naïve groups. The data represent 5 separate experiments.