Figure 5

Th1-induced vascular endothelial growth factor but not angiopoietin-like-4 expression is dependent on hypoxia-inducible factor-1. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) were transiently transfected with siRNA oligonucleotides complementary to hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α (siHIF-1α). An siRNA oligonucleotide complementary to siLuc was used as control. The cell cultures were subsequently exposed to 10 ng/ml cytokines or left untreated for 24 hours. Changes in mRNA in response to IL-1β or TNFα of (a) vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and (b) angiopoietin-like (ANGPTL)-4 expressed as fold-change relative to levels in the siLuc transfected untreated controls set as 1.0 (dotted line). Data expressed as the mean ± standard error of the mean of ≥3 independent experiments with samples assayed in triplicate and analysed versus cytokine-treated siLuc transfected cells. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.