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Fig. 4 | Arthritis Research & Therapy

Fig. 4

From: Effects of selexipag and its active metabolite in contrasting the profibrotic myofibroblast activity in cultured scleroderma skin fibroblasts

Fig. 4

Evaluation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (Erk1/2) and protein kinase B (Akt) activation in cultured human systemic sclerosis (SSc) skin fibroblasts. a Western blotting and related densitometric analysis of phospho-Erk1/2 (p-Erk1/2), Erk1/2, phospho-Akt (p-Akt) and Akt in cultured human SSc skin fibroblasts maintained in normal growth medium (untreated) or treated with ACT-333679 at the concentration of 10 μM, 1 μM, and 0.1 μM for 48 h. The expression of phosphorylated proteins (p-Erk1/2 and p-Akt) was first normalized to that of the naïve proteins (Erk1/2 and Akt) and then normalized to that of the related expression of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). The resulting value of each treatment was compared to that of the untreated cells (taken as the unit value): *p < 0.05 vs. untreated cells. b Western blotting and related densitometric analysis of phospho-Erk1/2 (p-Erk1/2), Erk1/2, phospho-Akt (p-Akt) and Akt, in cultured human SSc skin fibroblasts maintained in normal growth medium (untreated) or treated with ACT-333679 at the concentration of 10 μM, 1 μM, and 0.1 μM for 15 min and 30 min. The expression of phosphorylated proteins (p-Erk1/2 and p-Akt) was normalized to that of the naïve proteins (Erk1/2 and Akt). The resulting value was then normalized to that of the related expression of GAPDH: #p < 0.01 vs. time zero (T0); *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 vs. untreated cells. The final results represent the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the values obtained from six independent experiments on cultured human SSc skin fibroblasts

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