Fig. 2

SB431542 blocks the stimulatory effect of GDF-8 on MMP2 expression in both HTR-8/SVneo and primary EVT cells. A and B, HTR-8/SVneo (A) and primary EVT (B) cells were pretreated with vehicle control (DMSO) or 10 µM SB431542 for 1 h, and then treated with 30 ng/mL GDF-8 for 24 h. The mRNA levels of MMP2 were examined by RT-qPCR. C and D, HTR-8/SVneo (C) and primary EVT (D) cells were pretreated with vehicle control (DMSO) or 10 µM SB431542 for 1 h, and then treated with 30 ng/mL GDF-8 for 24 h. The protein levels of MMP2 were examined by western blot. The results are expressed as the mean ± SEM of at least three independent experiments. Multiple comparisons were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. Values that are statistically different from one another (p < 0.05) are indicated by different letters. The values with any common letter are not significantly different