Fig. 4

Effect of cigarette smoke on SARS-CoV-2-induced tight junction’s disruption and mucus hypersecretion. A Representative transmission electron micrographs of the tight junctions in well-differentiated airway epithelial cells (MOI = 0.1). Scale bar, 200 nm. B mRNA expression of ZO-1. C mRNA expression of E-cadherin. D mRNA expression of MUC5AC. TJ, tight junctions; AJ, adherens junctions; Ds, desmosomes; Ctrl, control; CSM, cigarette smoke medium; SCoV2, SARS-CoV-2; H, hours. MOI of 2 was used for analysis of gene expression. Values are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 5). ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001 for One-way ANOVA test with post hoc analysis and Tukey correction