Figure 7
Effect of Smad 7 overexpression on transforming growth factor-beta-1 (TGF-β1)-induced responses in rat chondrocytes. Rat chondrocytes were electroporated with either empty vector or wild-type Smad 7 overexpressing plasmid (2 μg/well of six-well plate) and then treated for 12 hours with 10 ng/mL of TGF-β1. Total RNA was extracted and subjected to real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. The mRNA level of aggrecan (a) and Ank (b) was normalized to that of S29 mRNA and is expressed as mean percentages (± standard deviation) over control values from three independent experiments. Statistically significant differences from the control are indicated as *p < 0.05 and from TGF-β1-treated cells as #p < 0.05.