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. 2018 Aug 29;8:13025. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31328-2

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© The Author(s) 2018

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Knockdown of Nexilin/NEXN reduces actin polymerization and SMC marker expression. NEXN was silenced using a short hairpin adenoviral construct (sh-NEXN) and the contents of NEXN and a number of SMC differentiation markers were examined at the mRNA (panel A, N = 6–9) and protein levels (panels B and C, N = 12). Panel D shows that depolymerization of actin using LatB reduces SRF expression in both human bladder and coronary artery SMCs (HBSMCs, N = 8; HCASMCs, N = 9). Panel E shows phalloidin staining of actin filaments in control cell (Null) and after NEXN silencing (sh-NEXN). The scale bar represents 50 μm. Panel F shows a sedimentation assay to determine filamentous (F-) and globular (G-) actin in control cells (null) and after silencing of NEXN. Panel G shows the normalized F- to G-actin ratio in bladder and coronary artery SMCs (HBSMCs, N = 12; HCASMCs, N = 6). Panel H shows that polymerization of actin using jasplakinolide (Jasp) increases MYH11 in HBSMCs in control conditions and after NEXN silencing (N = 6). Panel I shows cell density at different times following the creation of a cell-free area in the culture dish (N = 9–10). Panel J shows the speed of cell movement within the cell-free area (N = 19 and 22 motile cells in Null and sh-NEXN, respectively). Panel K shows a cell viability assay comparing control and NEXN-silenced cells (N = 12 throughout). The effect of NEXN silencing on cell migration was confirmed using an independent siRNA in L (N = 9). The associated repression of the NEXN protein is shown in (M) (N = 6). The schematic illustration in panel N summarizes our findings regarding the transcriptional control of NEXN and its impact on actin polymerization and cell motility. Several aspects of this model, including the involvement of a (G) protein-coupled receptor in the S1P effect, were not directly tested here, and they are thus drawn in grey.