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. 2012 Aug 22;7(8):e42714. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042714

Figure 3. Relaxin signals through nNOS and iNOS to positively regulate MMPs in rat myofibroblasts.

Figure 3

Representative zymographs of L-MMP-9, A-MMP-9, L-MMP-2, A-MMP-2 and Western blots of L-MMP-13 from untreated rat renal myofibroblasts and cells treated with H2 relaxin (100 ng/ml) over 72 hours, in the absence or presence of the general NOS inhibitor, L-NAME (75 µM); nNOS inhibitor, NPLA (0.2 µM); iNOS inhibitor, 1400W (0.5 µM); or eNOS inhibitor, L-NIO (0.5 µM). Additional blots of α-tubulin demonstrate the quality and equivalent loading of protein samples. Also shown are the mean ± SE levels of each rat MMP studied (which was derived from the latent and active forms), in the absence or presence of H2 relaxin and each inhibitor studied, as determined by densitometry scanning (from at least 3 separate experiments); and expressed as relative values to those of the untreated group, which was expressed as 1 in each case. **p<0.01 vs untreated cells; ##p<0.01 vs H2 relaxin alone-treated cells.