Fig. 4

Live Candida albicans at MOI 5 regulates MAPK and HIF-1α pathways in melanoma cells. VEGF release induced by six hours of stimulation with C. albicans in absence and presence of inhibitors for (a) NF-κB (BAY 11-7082, 2 µM), ERK1/2 (PD-0325901; 1 µM), JNK (SP600125, 10 µM), p38 (SB 203580, 10 µM), (b) HIF-1α (LW6, 10 µM) and c c-Fos/AP-1 complex (T-5224, 10 µM). (c,d) Melanoma cells Fos gene and (e) protein expression analysis in absence or presence of p38 inhibitor or HIF-1α inhibitor. (f) VEGF release induced by six hours of stimulation with C. albicans in absence and presence of inhibitors for c-Fos/AP-1 complex (T-5224, 10 µM). Data were presented as the individual values, means ± SEM. (a,b,f) (n = 3 biologically independent samples); (c,d) (n = 4 biologically independent samples). Two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test was used to examine the statistical significance between groups. ^### denotes P < 0.005 respect to control without C. albicans; * and *** denote P < 0.05 and P < 0.005 of each inhibitor compared to inhibitor with C. albicans, respectively; †, †† and ††† denote P < 0.05, P < 0.01 and P < 0.005 of C. albicans group compared to inhibitors with C. albicans groups, respectively. (e) Representative data of three independent Western Blots. HK: Heat-Killed; CM: Conditioned Media obtained after six hours of exposure of melanoma cells to live C. albicans MOI 5.