Figure 2
Ang II induces CTGF protein expression via an AT1-dependent mechanism in LX-2 cells. (A,B) Immunoblotting analysis was performed using whole cell lysates from unstimulated control cells to identify AT1 and AT2. (C) Serum-starved LX-2 cells were preincubated with losartan (an AT1 receptor antagonist; 10−6 M) or PD123319 (an AT2 receptor antagonist; 10−5 M) for 1 h and then incubated with or without Ang II (10−7 M) for 4 h. PMA (10−7 M; a PKC activator) was used as a positive control. Cell extracts were collected and subjected to immunoblotting analysis using anti-CTGF antibody. β-Actin was used as an internal control for equal loading of total protein amounts. The experiments were repeated thrice with similar results and representative immunoblot bands are shown. (D) The protein levels of CTGF were converted to arbitrary densitometric units, normalized by the value of β-actin and expressed relative to the level of CTGF in the vehicle-treated cells (defined as 1-fold). The results are shown as mean ± SD of 3 independent experiments. # P < 0.05 versus vehicle-treated control cells; * P < 0.05 versus Ang II-treated cells.
