Silencing of TGF-β–Induced Expression of SmGCP by Knocking Down SmTβRII Expression

<p>Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analyses for transcripts of SmGCP as well as various components of schistosomal TGF-β signaling pathways in 35-d-old and 28-d-old old worm pairs, untransformed and transformed with SmTβRII-siRNA, and either left untreated or treated with TGF-β1 (1 nM). The top panel shows the agarose gel separation of the PCR products of SmTβRII (panel B), SmTβRI (panel C), SmGCP (panel D), SmSmad4 (panel E), SmSmad2 (panel F), SmSmad1 (panel G), and the constitutively transcribed control, α-tubulin (panel A). The lanes are labeled to show detailed treatment of each sample. The bar graph representation shows the percentage values of the optical densities in pixels of the PCR bands for each gene compared to the corresponding band of α-tubulin control from the same stage. Values were calculated from three independent PCR amplifications (Error bars represent the standard deviation).