Figure 7.

Effect of TNF-α and GF109203X on p38 MAP kinase activity in rat aortic SMC. After subculturing with 5.5 mM or 16.5 mM glucose, the cells were not treated or treated with TNF-α (100 nM) for 5 min after pretreatment with a PKC-specific inhibitor, GF109203X (GFX, 5 μM), for 30 min, and then lysed. The p38 MAP kinase activity was quantitated by the phosphorylation of MBP using [γ-³²P]ATP as described in Methods. GF109203X was solubilized with DMSO and TNF-α with serum-free DMEM, respectively. The results were derived from three separate experiments, with each experiment performed in duplicate. Each bar represents the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. 5.5 mM glucose (–); ^#P < 0.05 vs. 16.5 mM glucose (–). TNF, tumor necrosis factor.