Figure 5. Effect of IL-6 on the TGF-β1 promoter activity. Three independent primary cultures of HTM cells were infected with AdTGFβ1-SEAP (m.o.i=20 pfu/cell) and serum-starved for 16 h at day 1 post-infection. A: Cells were incubated in serum-free media with IL-6 (100 ng/ml). SEAP activity was assayed in the culture media at the indicated times. B: Cells were pre-treated for 2 h with the MAPK inhibitors and then incubated in serum-free media with IL-6 (100 ng/ml) in the presence of the inhibitors (10 μM). SEAP activity in the culture media was assayed at 6 h. The asterisk indicates that p is less than 0.05. Statistical significance between groups was assessed by the paired Student's t-test (n=3).