Figure 7
Effects of activin A and TNF-α on expression of activin receptors, Smads and ERK1/2 in L929 cells. (a) The expression of activin receptors and Smads mRNA was determined by RT-PCR in L929 cells subject to 10 ng/mL activin A, 10 ng/mL TNF-α or both for 12 h. The graph represented the relative levels of mRNA in three separate experiments. The expression levels of mRNAs were normalized against GAPDH expression, and the results were shown as the fold-increase of the control. Full-length gels are presented in Supplementary Fig. 7. The expression levels of ActRIIA, Smad3, p-Smad3 (b), ERK1/2 and p-ERK1/2 (c) were examined by Western blotting in L929 cells subject to 10 ng/mL activin A, 10 ng/mL TNF-α or both for 4 h. The graph represented the relative levels of proteins in three separate experiments. The levels of these proteins were normalized against GAPDH expression, and the results were shown as the fold-increase of the control. Full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. 8. NS: not significant; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control group; #P < 0.05 vs. TNF-α group.
