Fig. 7

Effect of overexpression of IκBβ isoform on the transcriptional activity of the wild-type human iNOS promoter and a mutant promoter featuring complete deletion of the NFκB site at position −116 to −105 bp in PVEC. The first two sets of bars represent PVEC cotransfected with the wild-type phiNOS-205Luc plasmid, defined in Figure 1. The remaining two sets of bars represent PVEC cotransfected with the mutant plasmid, phiNOSΔNFKBLuc. Cells of the second and fourth sets of bars also received an expression vector for IκBβ, whereas cells of the first and third sets of bars received an empty vector. Open bars represent the expression of luciferase reporter gene in untreated cells; closed bars represent effect of IL-1β treatment. Luciferase activity is expressed relative to that achieved in untreated PVEC cotransfected with the phiNOS-205Luc plasmid and an empty expression vector. Luciferase activity was normalized to protein concentration of cell extracts. Values shown are the means ± SEM of six independent experiments.