Figure 2.

TNF-α selectively modulates ANP, BNP, and NPR-1 expression. BEAS-2B cells were treated with 10, 20, and 40 ng/mL TNF-α for 24 h. ((a), (b)) ANP, ((c), (d)) BNP, and ((e), (f)) NPR-1 gene expression at mRNA ((a), (c), and (e)) and protein level ((b), (d), and (f)). Western blots were obtained by using the specific rabbit polyclonal Abs. The blots were stripped of the bound Ab and reprobed with mouse anti-β-actin, to confirm equal loading. Western blots are representative of three separate experiments. All histograms indicate means ± SD of three different cultures each one tested in quadruplicate and expressed as percentage of control (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, and ****P < 0.0001 versus untreated cells).