Figure 3.

Laminar shear stress induces GADD45 promoter activity through the regulation of p53. BAECs were transfected with GADD45 promoters/luciferase plasmid. The transfections include the wt GADD45 promoter, a mutant GADD45 promoter, and wt GADD45 promoter together with an E6 expression construct. Transfected BAECs were subjected to laminar shear stress at 12 dynes/cm² for 24 h. The cells were then lysed and assayed for luciferase activity. The GADD45 promoter activities were normalized by using the cotransfected β-gal expression plasmid. * denotes P < 0.05 compared with the corresponding controls kept under static condition. Note the absence of shear induction of the mutant promoter and the marked reduction in the shear-induced wt GADD promoter activity when cotransfected with an E6 expression construct.