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. 2012 Jun;136(2):184–191. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2567.2012.03568.x

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Microvesicle (MV) -induced peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) activation is dependent upon the presence of syncytin 1. (a) BeWo cells, either non-transfected (wild-type) or transfected with a non-targeting small interfering (si) RNA (500 nm) or two different HERV-W-specific siRNA sequences (a, b; 500 nm) were cultured for 72 hr and then analysed for HERV-W mRNA expression. HERV-W mRNA expression normalized to 18S mRNA was expressed relative to the wild-type control cells for each experiment and analysed by Mann–Whitney U-test (*P < 0·05, **P < 0·01 versus cells treated with non-targeting siRNA) (n = 5). (b) PBMC were incubated with either: no treatment (NT); or 20 μg/ml isolated MV derived from: wild-type BeWo cells (Wild-type MV); BeWo cells transfected with non-targeting siRNA (non-targeting MV); or BeWo cells transfected with HERV-W specific siRNA sequences a or b (HERV-W siRNA MV). After 24 hr, supernatants were collected and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) was measured by ELISA and analysed by Mann–Whitney U-test. *P < 0·05, **P < 0·01 compared with NT control unless otherwise specified (n = 6).