Fig. 1

Effect of Cucumis sativus L. extract (CSE) on LPS-induced pAECs toxicity. a Representative images of pAECs morphology under LPS (10 μg/ml) stimulation (b, c, d) and in the presence of increasing dose of CSE (0.02; 0.2; 2 mg/ml). e Protective effect of CSE on LPS-induced cytotoxicity; data shown are representative of at least three independent experiments and represent the mean ± SEM. f CSE restored the LPS-induced decrease of ZO-1 mRNA expression; relative expression was calculated as fold of change in respect to the control cells and error bar represents the range of relative gene expression. Different letters above the bars indicate significant differences (p < 0.05 ANOVA post hoc Tukey’s test)