Figure 9. GC and Vpr differentially regulate key genes involved in apoptosis.

PBMCs were treated with or without 5 µM Vpr peptide as described previously and treated with or without 100 nM Dex, MPA, NET-A or P4 for 24 hrs. After treatment, RNA was extracted, reverse transcribed, and Bcl-2 (A) or, Bim (B) mRNA expression was measured by real time PCR, normalising to GAPDH expression levels. The histogram shows pooled results from two independent experiments with samples from three donors. Statistical significance was determined by one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post-test, where *, **, and *** indicate p<0.05, 0.01 and 0.005 respectively. Error bars represent standard deviation.