Met does not activate IFI16 and AMPK in p53-silenced HASMCs. Control HASMCs and p53-silenced HASMCs (48 h post-transfection) were treated with or without 10 mM Met for 24 h. (A) Control HASMCs (control), control HASMCs treated with Met (Met), p53-silenced HASMCs (p53 si) and p53-silenced HASMCs treated with Met (p53 si + Met) were lysed and examined by western blot analysis to detect ATM, p-ATM, p53, p-p53, IFI16, AMPK and p-AMPK protein expression. (B) Histogram represents fold change in protein expression normalized to GAPDH relative to the control. All data are presented as the means ± standard deviation from three independent experiments. *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001 vs. the control group; ##P<0.01 and ###P<0.001 vs. the p53 si group. AMPK, 5′ adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase; ATM, ataxia telangiectasia-mutated; HASMCs, human aortic smooth muscle cells; IFI16, interferon-inducible protein 16; p-, phosphorylated; si, small interfering RNA.