Figure 11.

Effect of siRNA knockdown or overexpression of mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) on human airway smooth muscle (hASM) cell proliferation. After siRNA knockdown of Mfn2 expression, or treatment with TNFα with or without transfection with Mfn2 overexpression plasmid, hASM cell proliferation was examined using CyQuant cell proliferation assay and expressed as %untreated hASM cell proliferation. hASM cell proliferation was significantly increased with TNFα treatment and siRNA knockdown of Mfn2 expression has a similar effect on hASM cell proliferation. By contrast, overexpression of Mfn2 expression abolished the effect of TNFα on hASM cell proliferation. Nonsense (NS) RNA has no effect on hASM cell proliferation and was used as control for transfection. Treated and untreated groups were collected at the same time and under the same conditions. Data are presented as medians and interquartile range represented as a box-and-whisker plot. Results were analyzed using one-way ANOVA (with repeated measures). *Significant difference (P < 0.05) compared with untreated hASM cells (N = 5 patients, 2 males and 3 females).