(a-c) NHDFs were infected with lentivirus expressing
control non-targeting shRNA (NT), Cox-2 targeting shRNAs or uninfected (UI) and
recovered for 48 hrs. NHDFs were serum starved overnight followed by 2 ng/mL of
TGF-β for 3 days; (a) α-SMA expression was measured
by western blot (normalized to GAPDH). n=3, 1-way ANOVA, *p<0.05; error
bars are +/− SEM; (b) secreted PGE2 concentration
was measured by ELISA; n=3, 1-way ANOVA, *p<0.05; error bars are
+/− SEM. (c) NHDFs incubated with TGF-β with or
without 500 nM PGE2 for 3 days, and α-SMA expression was
measured by western blot (normalized to GAPDH). n=3, 2-way ANOVA analysis, *
p<0.05; error bars are +/− SEM.