Figure 4.

siRNA c-Myc knockout effect on Relaxin (R) in rhinovirus-infected cells. c-Myc transcription factor knockout inverted the relaxin (R) effect of a decrease in MMP-9 (Matrix metalloproteinase 9, (A)) expression. TGF-β (B), and collagen I (C) mRNA expression was significantly decreased by relaxin. Under the conditions used, no effect of relaxin or rhinoviruses were observed in aDAM33 (D), YKL-40(Chitinase-3-like protein 1) (E) and LTC4S (G) expression. Relaxin changed the expression of RXFP1 in epithelial cells (F), and in fibroblasts in α-SMA (H). No difference was noticed between the specimens when relaxin was added to HRV (Human Rhinovirus)-infected cells (H16R, H2R) or prior to the HRV infection. H16R, H2R—rhinovirus 16 and 2 added first, followed by relaxin—after 24 h, as well as RH16, RH2—relaxin added first, followed by rhinovirus 16 and 2—added after 24 h. The data presented are normalized to the samples treated with control siRNA. * p < 0.05 in comparison to the control sample, and + p < 0.05 in comparison to the rhinovirus sample (HRV-2 or HRV-16, respectively); C is the control sample with medium only. N = 6, error bars—SEM.