Fig 3. Effect of IL-6 on IKr protein expression in HEK-hERG cells.
Western blot analysis of the IKr channel hERG expression in HEK-hERG cells from control cells and in cells pre-treated for 40 min with IL-6 (20 ng/ml) alone or IL-6 (20 ng/ml)+IL-6R (25 ng/ml). A, compared to control hERG protein expression (Lane 1), exposure to IL-6 (20 ng/ml) reduced the expression of the 150 kDa and 135 kDa (Lane 2) hERG proteins. A further decrease in the bands was observed (Lane 3) with pretreatment with IL-6 (20 ng/ml) + IL-6R (25 ng/ml). Compared to untreated HEK-hERG cells (Open bar, B and C), normalized values of 150 kDa (B) and 135 kDa (C) hERG bands/GAPDH revealed significant down-regulation of the protein expression of hERG in the presence of IL-6 alone (Black Bars, B and C) or IL-6+IL-6R (Grey Bars, B and C). Equal amounts of protein were loaded in each lane. The 37 kDa bands represent GAPDH.