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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Kidney Int. 2018 Aug 6;94(4):756–772. doi: 10.1016/j.kint.2018.05.023

Figure 6.

Figure 6

XL-001 inhibits CB2-mediated fibrogenic responses in vitro. (a) Western blot analyses show that XL-001 inhibited CB2 agonist-induced fibronectin and α-SMA protein expression. HKC-8 cells were incubated with specific CB2 agonist (AM1241) in the absence or presence of XL-001 for 24 hours. (b, c) Graphic presentations of the relative abundances of fibronectin (b) and α-SMA (c) proteins in different groups as indicated. *P < 0.05 versus controls; †P < 0.05 versus AM1241 alone. (d–e) XL-001 acted as a CB2 inverse agonist. HKC-8 cells were transiently transfected with CB2 expression vector (pCMV-CB2), and then incubated with AM1241 or XL-001 as indicated. Representative Western blotting (d) and quantitative data on fibronectin (e) and α-SMA (f) are presented. *P < 0.05 versus controls; †P < 0.05 versus pCMV-CB2 alone. (g) XL-001 also dose-dependently inhibited TGF-β1-induced fibronectin and α-SMA protein expression. HKC-8 cells were incubated with TGF-β1 (2 ng/ml) in the absence or presence of XL-001 for 24 hours. (h, i) Graphic presentations of the relative abundances of fibronectin (h) and α-SMA (i) proteins in different groups as indicated. *P < 0.05 versus controls; †P < 0.05 versus TGF-β1 alone. (j) Representative micrographs show the immunofluorescence staining of fibronectin expressions in different groups as indicated. Scale bar, 50 μm.