Ulinastatin Ameliorates IL-1β-Induced Cell Dysfunction in Human Nucleus Pulposus Cells via Nrf2/NF-κB Pathway

Figure 4

UTI ameliorated IL-1β-induced ECM degradation in human NP cells. (a) The expression of MMP3 and type II collagen by the immunofluorescence. . (b) qRT-qPCR was used to evaluate the mRNA expression of MMP 3, MMP 13, ACAN, and COL2A1 (). (c, d) Protein bands and quantification of protein levels of MMP 13, MMP 3, type II collagen, and aggrecan. GAPDH as an internal control (). (e) IL-1β-induced differential expression of MMP 13, MMP 3, type II collagen, and aggrecan were measured by ELISA cotreated with UTI in a dose-dependent manner in the cultural supernatant of NP cells (). , , , ; ^#, ^##, ^###, ^####. The comparison among groups has been marked in figure.

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