Fig. 8
From: Mechanical strain promotes skin fibrosis through LRG-1 induction mediated by ELK1 and ERK signalling
ELK1 controls LRG-1 expression. a Venn diagram showing the intersection of JASPAR and PROMO’s online prediction of possible TFs that bind to the LRG1 promoter region. b Expression level of phosphorylated and total ELK1 after HDFs were applied after mechanical stretching (10%) at different periods of time or different strengths for 2 h, n = 3 independent experiments. c Western blotting analysis of phosphorylation and total ELK1 in HDFs applied with mechanical stretching (10%) and treatment (or no treatment) with FAK-I, n = 3. d Immunofluorescence staining for ERK and p-ELK1 in HDFs after mechanical stretching (10%) and treatment (or no treatment) with FAK-I. ERK are labeled in green and p-ELK1 in red, n = 3. (Scale bar = 50 μm). e Western blotting analysis of phosphorylation and total ERK and ELK1 in HDFs after mechanical stretching (10%) and treatment (or no treatment) with ERK-I, n = 3. f Protein expression levels of total ELK1 analyzed by Western blotting 2 days after siELK1 transfection, n = 3. g Effect of ELK1 inhibition on LRG-1 expression at day 3 after mechanical stretching (10%) (or not) and transfection at day 1 with siELK1 or siCTL, n = 3. h Immunofluorescence staining for p-ELK1 and LRG-1 in HDFs after mechanical stretching (10%) and transfection with siELK1 or siCTL. p-ELK1 are labeled in green and LRG-1 in red. (Scale bar = 50 μm). i Luciferase reporter assay demonstrates that LRG-1 is a target gene of ELK1, n = 3. j Immunohistochemistry staining of p-ELK1 in human skin tissues (n = 20, upper) and in mouse scar tissues of the control group, loading group, loading with FAK inhibitor (PF573228) injection group, and loading with ERK inhibitor (PD98059) injection group (n = 15, lower). (Scale bar = 50 μm). Data are presented as mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001
