Biomechanical stretching activates NF-kappaB which regulates MMP-10 expression in cultured podocytes.

<p>NF-kappaB localizes primarily to the cytosol in non-stretched cultured podocytes (panel A). Subjecting the cells to cyclic biomechanical stretching results in the nuclear localization of NF-kappaB (panel B), which is consistent with its activation. Panel C shows that stretch-mediated induction of MMP-10 is blocked by addition of a peptide inhibitor for NF-kappaB to the culture medium. Scale bar = 20 µm.