Figure 6.

Ca²⁺ imaging of MRTF-B-transduced human coronary artery SMCs. To examine if MRTF-B transduction increases responsiveness to the muscarinic agonist carbachol, cells were treated as indicated for 5 days in culture. They were subsequently washed and loaded with Fluo-4 and imaged using confocal microscopy. Only a fraction of the cells responded to carbachol [(A), middle], but the responses were larger in MRTF-B-transduced cells. (B,C) Show the 20 cells responding best to carbachol in the experiment in (A). (D) shows compiled data from three independent experiments with Fluo-4. The Ca²⁺ signal between 200 and 250s was significantly increased by prior MRTF-B transduction. (E) shows intracellular Ca²⁺ in human coronary artery SMCs after transduction of MRTF-B or null virus, respectively (N =6), but measured Ca²⁺ using X-Rhod-1. Error bars in (D,E) represent 95% confidence intervals. ****p<0.0001 and **p<0.01.