Figure 11

Suppression of the production of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by silencing nuclear factor (NF)κB1 mRNA in bone marrow CD34+ cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Purified bone marrow CD34+ cells from 12 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were transfected with small interfering RNA (siRNA) for NFκB1 or a scrambled sequence control siRNA, after which the cells were further incubated in culture medium with stem cell factor (10 ng/ml), granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (1 ng/ml) and tumor necrosis factor-α (10 ng/ml) for 4 weeks with no medium changes. After the incubation, the supernatants were harvested and assayed for MMP-1 and VEGF by ELISA. Statistical significance was evaluated by Wilcoxon's signed rank test.