Fig. 8.

Interstitial flow-induced MMP-1 expression is independent of c-fos. A: cells that were transfected with c-fos shRNAs expressed much less c-fos [RT-PCR (left), and RT-qPCR (right)]. B: silencing c-fos barely affected flow-induced MMP-1 expression [RT-PCR (top), and RT-qPCR (bottom)]. To silence c-fos, the same amounts of shc-fos-a and shc-fos-b shRNAs were cotransfected into SMCs at 10 μg of total plasmid DNA/2.5×10⁶ cells (i.e., 5 μg of shc-fos-a and 5 μg of shc-fos-b were mixed together). BS/U6 vector (10 μg) was used as vector control. Transfection was conducted using Lipofectamine LTX and PLUS reagents (Invitrogen). After 24 h of transfection, cells were suspended into collagen gels and allowed to spread for 24 h before flow experiments. Gels were then exposed to 1 cmH₂O of interstitial flow for 3 h. Data are presented as means ± SE. A: *P < 0.001 vs. vector; n = 3. B: *P < 0.02 vs. vector control; n = 3.