Inhibitory effects of interferons on pancreatic stellate cell activation

Figure 6 Effects of STAT1 siRNA on PSC growth. A: Expression of STAT1 in PSCs 5 d after STAT1 siRNA application determined by immunoblot analysis as well as ERK 1 and 2 expression analyzed using an anti-ERK 1/2 protein-specific antibody; B: PSCs treated with STAT1 siRNA and IFN-γ as indicated and control cultures were exposed to a non-silencing control oligonucleotide at the same concentration. PSC proliferation was analyzed through the determination of BrdU incorporation into newly synthesized DNA as described in the section “Materials and methods”. One hundred percent cell proliferation corresponds to PSCs treated with control oligonucleotide (left two columns) or STAT 1 siRNA (right two columns) in the absence of IFN-γ Data are presented as mean ± SE (n = 7 separate cell preparations from one rat). ^aP<0.05 vs IFN-γ-treated control cultures. The results shown are representative of three experiments using cells from different rats.