FIGURE 6.

Sp1 induced CSE expression and the hCSE core promoter activity. Sp1 stimulated the expressions of CSE and SMC differentiation marker genes (A and B) as well as H₂S production (C). After HASMCs were transfected with the construct pcDNA3.1-Sp1 or the control construct pcDNA3.1 for 48 h, the cells were lysed and processed for Western blotting (A), real-time PCR analysis (B), and measurement of H₂S production (C). The data were from three independent experiments. *, p < 0.05. Sp1 also induced the hCSE core promoter activities in both HASMCs (D) and SL-2 cells (E). The cells were co-transfected with pcDNA3.1-Sp1 or pcDNA3.1 and hCSE core promoter construct PGL3–366 or mutated construct PGL3-ΔΔSp1 for 48 h. The data were from three independent experiments in duplicate. *, p < 0.05.