Response of hepcidin transcript levels to serum deprivation and protein kinase inhibition.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Serum withdrawal rapidly decreased hepcidin transcript levels in Huh7 cells. (<b>B</b>) After 40 h of FCS reduction from 10% to 0.4%, hepcidin transcripts were hardly detectable by RPA in HepG2 cells, whereas hypoxic IGFBP1 induction was not affected. Representative of three independent experiments. U6sn RNA served as loading control. (<b>C</b>) Exposure of Huh7 cells to protein kinase inhibitors revealed that the pan kinase inhibitor staurosporine (stauro; 0.5 µM) and the PI3 kinase inhibitor LY294002 (LY; 10 µM) reduced hepcidin expression similar to serum deprivation, whereas the p38 SAP kinase inhibitor SB202190 (SB; 10 µM) had no effect and the MEK1/2 inhibitor UO126 (1 µM) even increased HAMP/18S ratios. Data are results of qRT PCR analyses and given as means of three independent experiments±SEM; *p<0.05; **p<0.01.