Figure 6.

Barbiturate-nitrate hybrids inhibit MMP-9 via a soluble guanylate-cyclase-dependent pathway. (A) there was a significant up-regulation of the MMP-9 gene when inducing Caco-2 cells with the pro-inflammatory cytokines. When cells were activated in the presence of ODQ (0.05 μM), this resulted in a reversion of MMP-9 mRNA levels in barbiturate-nitrate hybrid-treated cells. (B) Exogenously added 8-bromo-cGMP restored the effect of ODQ (0.5 μM). These results correlated with the pro-MMP-9 protein activity as shown by zymography (C,D) ## p < 0.01 vs. unstimulated Caco-2 cells (negative control); ### p < 0.001 vs. negative control; * p < 0.05 vs. cytokine-stimulated Caco-2 cells (positive control); ** p < 0.01 vs. positive control; *** p < 0.001 vs. positive control.