Fig. 2.

ERK1/2 inhibition suppresses expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen I and decreases E-cadherin expression in uric acid (UA)-treated human tubular epithelial (HK2) cells. Serum-starved HK2 cells were pretreated with U0126 (0, 5, 10, and 20 μM) for 1 h and then exposed to UA (800 μM) to induce cell injury in the presence of U0126 (0, 5, 10, and 20 μM) for an additional 36 h. A: cell lysates were subjected to immunoblot analysis with specific antibodies against α-SMA, collagen I, E-cadherin, and β-actin. B–D: expression levels of α-SMA (B), collagen I (C), and E-cadherin (D) were quantitated by densitometry and normalized to β-actin. E: immunoblot analysis was also performed with specific antibodies against phospho (p-)ERK1/2, ERK1/2, and GADPH. F: expression level of p-ERK1/2 was quantitated by densitometry and normalized to total ERK1/Values are means ± SE of at least three independent experiments. Means with different superscript letters are significantly different from one another (P < 0.05).