Figure 6.

NRF2 directly induces the K16 gene in HaCaT cells. Abbreviations: +, presence; –, absence; Con, control. (A) Cells were transiently transfected with empty vector pcDNA3.1 (control) or expression vector WT-NRF2 as described in “Materials and Methods,” and the expression of TXN, K16, and GAPDH was examined by semiquantitative RT-PCR using GAPDH expression levels as an internal control. (B) Cells were transfected with WT-NRF2, together with the pXK-5–1 and the Renilla luciferase vector pRL-TK (the pXK-5-1 luciferase vector is shown schematically in the lower panel). Transfected cells were incubated for 48 hr and then analyzed for luciferase activity as described in “Materials and Methods.” Luciferase activity in cells transfected with pcDNA3.1 was set as 100%. The values represent the mean ± SD of four independent transfection experiments, each run in triplicate. We obtained p-values by t-tests following logarithmic transformation of normalized values.

**p < 0.01 compared with the control group (pcDNA3.1).