Fig 2: Western blot quantification of (A) T1R2, (B) T1R3, (C) NOD1 and (D) NF-κB p65 protein expression relative to that of β-actin in rat lung tissues. Immunofluorescence staining images of (E) T1R2 (green), (F) T1R3 (green), (G) NOD1 (red) and (H) NF-κB p65 (red) in paraffin-embedded rat lung tissue sections; scale bar = 50 μm. The data are presented as the means ± SDs (n = 3). ns, not significant; *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01. NC: normal control; PA: Pseudomonas aeruginosa; DM: diabetes mellitus; Ex-4: exendin-4

Fig 3: The effects of different concentrations of glucose (5.6 mM, 10, 20 and 30 mM) on the expression of T1R2 and T1R3 in 16HBE cells. Western blot quantification of (A) T1R2 and (B) T1R3 proteins relative to β-actin. Cellular immunofluorescence images of (C) T1R2 and (D) T1R3 cells were acquired using confocal laser scanning microscopy at 40× magnification (scale bar = 50 μm), and the mean gray values were computed using ImageJ software. The data are presented as the means ± SDs (n = 3). *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01. NC: normal control; mM: mmol/l