FIGURE 2.

Klf4 reduces VSMC cell proliferation. A, VSMCs were infected with pAd, pAd-Klf4, control siRNA (si-neo), or siKlf4 for 2 days before harvesting. The expression of Klf4 was assessed by Western blot analysis. The blots were reprobed for β-actin as a loading control. Left panel, blots from a representative experiment are shown. Right panel, densitometry analysis was carried out and normalized to β-actin. The Klf4 signal in pAd- and si-neo-infected cells were given the value of 1.0. The bars represent the means ± S.E. of three independent experiments. *, p < 0.05 versus control pAd group; #, p < 0.05 versus si-neo group. B, effect of Klf4 overexpression (left panel) or siRNA-mediated Klf4 knockdown (right panel) on VSMC cell proliferation by MTT assay. The values represent fold increase relative to time 0. The experiments were performed in triplicate, and each value is the mean ± S.E. of three independent experiments. *, p < 0.05 versus control plasmid pAd using Student's t test.