Rapamycin Protects from Type-I Peritoneal Membrane Failure Inhibiting the Angiogenesis, Lymphangiogenesis, and Endo-MT

Figure 6

Rapamycin partially inhibits the MMT of MCs. (a–d) Omentum-derived MCs were treated or not with 1 ng/mL of TGF-β1 for 24 or 48 hours, in the presence of different doses of Rapamycin (2 and 4 nM). (a) Western blot analyses show that Rapamycin treatment prevents TGF-β1-induced E-cadherin downregulation as well as collagen I and fibronectin. (b) The E-cadherin expression was analyzed at 24 hours, whereas the expressions of (c) collagen-I and (d) fibronectin were analyzed at 48 hours of treatments. (e–h) Effect of Rapamycin on nonepithelioid phenotype MCs isolated from PD effluent (e) WB analysis in the presence of different Rapamycin’s doses. Rapamycin inhibited the expression of (f) α-SMA, (g) Collagen-I, and (h) fibronectin expression in a dose-dependent manner (2, 4, and 20 nM). Results are presented relative to untreated MCs (black bars) which were arbitrarily assigned as value 1 (b to d and f to h). The experiments were repeated at least three times and results are depicted as means ± SE (bar graphics).