Figure 6. Involvement of signaling pathways in cyclic mechanical stretch-increased cytokine production in rat aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs).

SMCs were seeded on fibronectin-coated silicone elastomer chambers till full attachment. The cells were treated with selective kinase inhibitors at 10 μM or 0.1% DMSO solvent control (SC) for 1 h, followed by uniaxial and cyclic 10% stretches at constant frequency (1 Hz) for 24 h. Conditioned media from the stretched SMCs and nonstretching control (NC) were collected after consecutive 24-h stretching and subjected to ELISA detectionof TNF-α (A) and IL-6 (B). Data are shown in mean ± SEM; *P<0.05 vs. NC; ^#P<0.05 vs. SC.