Figure 3

Effects of TGF-β1 on the steady state levels of specific mRNA species in normal peritoneal fibroblasts. Normal peritoneal fibroblasts were cultured for 24 h in absence or presence of TGF-β1 and total RNA from cells were examined for the steady-state levels of different mRNA species by semiquantitative RT-PCR technique as described in Methods. A. Representative gels showing amplicons generated by RT-PCR from specific gene transcripts (denoted on the left of the panel) from control (lanes 1, 2 and 3) and TGF-β1 (lanes 4, 5 and 6) treated cells. Complementary DNA for all genes except IGFBP3 precursor was amplified at 26 PCR cycles. IGFBP3 precursor transcripts were amplified at 25 cycles. L Lane loaded with 100 bp DNA ladder. B Histogram showing mean and standard errors of mean of optical densities from amplicons representing specific mRNA species (x axis). The RT-PCR experiments were conducted twice from normal and peritoneal isolated from 3 patients to obtain OD values of six amplicons from control (empty bars) or treated (shaded bars) fibroblasts statistical analysis. * Significantly different from control conditions at p < 0.05.