Mutual promotion of mitochondrial fission and oxidative stress contributes to mitochondrial-DNA-mediated inflammation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in paraquat-induced pulmonary fibrosis

Jie Zhang, Wen-jing Li, Shi-qiang Chen, Ze Chen, Chen Zhang, Ran Ying, Hong-bing Liu, Long-wang Chen, Ya-hui Tang, Zhong-qiu Lu, Guang-ju Zhao

Figure 2. mtDNA-mediated inflammation decreased after inhibiting Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fission. A-C: concentrations of IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β from mice measured by ELISA; D: the relative levels of mtDNA in plasma from mice; E-G: representative immunoblots and quantitative histogram of TLR9 and p-P65/P65 in the lung tissues from mice. n=6; *P<0.05, **P<0.01. All values are expressed as the mean±standard deviation. mtDNA: mitochondrial DNA; PQ: paraquat; TLR9: Toll-like receptor 9; P65: NF-κB p65; p-65: (P)-NF-κB p65; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase;ns: not significant.