Tissue culture and reagents
The human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cell line Calu-3 was cultured
as previously described [21]. Cadmium sulfate (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) was dissolved in sterile water at a concentration of
100 mM and was diluted in cell culture media to reach the indicated
concentration. MAPK inhibitor UO126 was from Calbiochem
(La Jolla, CA), and the NF-jB inhibitor Bay 11-7082 was from Santa
Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA).