Pretreatment with intestinal trefoil factor alleviates stress-induced gastric mucosal damage via Akt signaling

Figure 3 Intestinal trefoil factor preserved integrity of the gastric mucosa by activating the Akt signaling pathway. A: Immunofluorescence staining of tight junction markers [occludin and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1)] demonstrated that intestinal trefoil factor (ITF) maintained the integrity of GES-1 cells after treated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS). LY294002 undermined the protective effects of ITF via inhibiting the Akt signaling pathway in vitro; and B: Expression of occludin, ZO-1, Akt and pAkt were detected by Western blotting, suggesting that activation of the Akt signaling was essential for ITF to protect epithelium from damage induced by LPS. ^aP < 0.05 vs control cells; ^bP < 0.05 vs LPS-treated cells.