Figure 8

siRNA-mediated knock-down of the ROCK-II isoform selectively attenuates PKC-dependent disassembly of TJ. HPAF-II cells were transfected with either control or ROCK-isoform specific siRNAs and treated with OI-V (1 μM) for 5 h on day 3 post-transfection. (A) Immunoblotting analysis shows effective down-regulation of ROCK-I and ROCK-II by corresponding siRNAs. (B) Down-regulation of ROCK-II attenuates OI-V-induced TJ disassembly whereas ROCK-I knockdown has no effect. Bar, 20 μm. (C) Quantitative analysis of TJ disassembly. Data are presented as mean ± SE (n = 3); *p < 0.05 compared to the control siRNA-transfected cells.