Figure 8.

STING knockdown inhibits nsDNA-induced expression of APOL1 and IFI16 but does not affect expression induced by exogenous IFNβ. (a) AB8/13 podocytes were transfected for 48 h with a non-targeting control siRNA or siRNA pool targeting STING. Subsequently, sets of the transfected cells were transfected for 18 h with 1 μg ml⁻¹ nsDNA, treated for 18 h with IFNβ (10 ng ml⁻¹), or pretreated with 5 μM Ruxo for 2 h followed by IFNβ stimulation for 18 h. Expression of indicated proteins was analyzed by immunoblotting. The blot images were obtained from different gels. The blot probed with IFI16 was re-probed with IRF3. Other blot images were cropped from individually probed blots. Full images of the blots are shown in Supplementary Fig. S8. (b,c) STING knockdown inhibited expression of APOL1 (b) and IFNβ mRNA (c) in response to nsDNA. AB8/13 podocytes were transfected for 48 h with a non-targeting control siRNA or siRNA pool targeting STING, followed by transfection with 1 μg ml⁻¹ nsDNA for 18 h. Expression of APOL1 and IFNβ mRNA was normalized to GAPDH mRNA levels. Data are expressed as means ± SEM from three biological replicates (one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey test).