Fig. 4.

Both SMAD2 and SMAD3 participate in the GDF-11-induced MMP2 expression in HTR-8/SVneo cells. A and B, Cells were transfected with 50 nM control siRNA (si-Ctrl), SMAD2 siRNA (si-SMAD2), or SMAD3 siRNA (si-SMAD3) for 48 h, and then treated with 30 ng/mL GDF-11 (G11) for 24 h. The mRNA (A) and protein (B) levels of MMP2, SMAD2, and SMAD3 were examined by RT-qPCR and western blot, respectively. The results are expressed as the mean ± SEM of at least three independent experiments. Multiple comparisons were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. Values that are statistically different from one another (p < 0.05) are indicated by different letters. The values with any common letter are not significantly different