Figure 3.

FAK prevents apoptosis of MLE-15 cells in vitro under CS conditions. Cells were transfected with ectopic FAK (FAK recombinant adenovirus (AF)) or FAK siRNA, treated with a FAK inhibitor or left untreated. Thereafter, the cells were exposed to CS conditions for 4 h, collected, stained with annexin V and PI and analysed by FACS. The number of apoptotic cells (Annexin V-positive cells) was indicated as the percentage of gated cells. Representative images and relative quantifications are shown. The results indicate that CS treatment promoted the apoptosis of MLE-15 cells. And the pro-apoptotic effect of CS was attenuated by FAK expression, while FAK knockdown promoted cell apoptosis. Moreover, the anti-apoptotic effect of FAK was blocked by a FAK inhibitor. All experiments were performed in triplicate, and the data are presented as the mean ± SEM (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 by two-tailed t test). control: no cell stretch treatment; CS: cell stretch treatment only; vector: transfection with vector followed by cell stretch treatment; AF: transfection with FAK recombinant adenovirus followed by cell stretch treatment; AF + DMSO: transfection with FAK recombinant adenovirus and treatment with DMSO followed by cell stretch treatment; AF + FAK inhibitor: transfection with FAK recombinant adenovirus and treatment with a FAK inhibitor followed by cell stretch treatment; scramble: transfection with scramble probe followed by cell stretch treatment; FAK siRNA: transfection with FAK siRNA followed by cell stretch treatment.