Fig 8. Effect of treatment with the T. aurantium and T. citrina sponge extracts from wild and reared specimens on MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression in astrocytes.
Primary astrocytes (1×105 cells/ml) were activated with LPS and treated with the crude extracts from T. aurantium and T. citrina at the indicated concentrations. Untreated and unstimulated cells represent negative control (CTRL). The isolated RNA samples were analyzed by RT-PCR, using the primer pairs specific for MMP-2, MMP-9 and 18S. The products were run on a 1.5% agarose gel containing ethidium bromide. The bands were visualized under UV. Representative results are shown in A. Quantitation of the above experiment and two others after scanning densitometry are shown in B. Positive control MMP-2 and MMP-9 mRNA were set at 100%, and the treatments with the aqueous extracts represented as the percent of control (mean ±SD). Statistically significant inhibiton of MMP mRNA expression in comparison to positive control (LPS) is indicated by asterisks (one way ANOVA followed by Tukey test; * = p<0.05).