Fig. 1

Overexpression of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induces fibrotic effects in the HEK293 cell line. (a, b) Schematic representation and cloning site regions of the pcDNA3.1-SARS2-spike and pLEX307-ACE2-puro plasmids. (c) Western blotting analysis detecting the protein levels of fibrosis markers α-SMA and collagen type I with or without the overexpression of pcDNA3.1-SARS2-spike and pLEX307-ACE2-puro in the HEK293 cell line. (d) Graph illustrating the levels of α-SMA and collagen type I with or without the overexpression of pcDNA3.1-SARS2-spike and pLEX307-ACE2-puro in the HEK293 cell line. The data were expressed as the mean ± SEM for triplicate experiments, GAPDH was used as an internal control; *p < 0.05