Figure 5. RhoA/ROCK inhibition increases the TGF-β/Smad pathway.
a. VSMCs, grown in serum-free medium, were transfected with a Smad-luc reporter vector for 24h. Then, cells were treated for 24h with Simvastatin (SV) or Y-27632. After that, 1 ng/mL TGF-β was added in fresh medium and Smad-dependent transcription was measured after 24h of incubation. Some cells were pretreated for 1h with 5 µg/mL FPP or GGPP or 10−4 mol/L mevalonate (Mev) before Simvastatin treatment. Luciferase activity is expressed as mean±SEM of 4 experiments. *p<0.05 vs. control. ¥ p<0.05 vs. SV 10−4 Mol/L. b: Serum starved VSMCs were incubated for 48h with C3 exoenzyme (10 µg/mL), NSC-23766 (50mMol/L) or Y-27632 (10−5 mol/L), before stimulation with TGF-β for 20 min. Representative western blot and relative protein levels expressed as mean±SEM of 4 experiments. *p<0.05 vs. control. # p<0.05 vs. TGF-β.