(A) Chemical structure of XMD8-92.
(B) HeLa cells were serum starved overnight followed by treatment with 1 or 5 μM XMD8-92 or 1 μM PD184352 as indicated for one hour. Cells were then stimulated with EGF for 17 min and BMK1 activation was detected by mobility retardation (Abe et al., 1996). ERK1/2 activation was detected by an anti-phospho-ERK1/2 (T202/Y204) antibody.
(C) HEK293 cells were co-transfected with expression plasmids of MEK5D and BMK1. After 48 hr, BMK1 was immunoprecipitated and in vitro kinase assays were performed in the presence of the indicated amount of XMD8-92. The ATP concentration was measured by the Kinase-Glo® Luminescent Kinase Assay Platform. Kinase activity is expressed relative to the kinase activity in cells without XMD8-92 treatment, which was taken as 1. n = 3, ± SEM.
(D) Expression plasmids of MEK5D and BMK1 were transfected into HEK293 as indicated. After 36 hr, these cells were co-transfected with vectors for pCMV-β and the reporter plasmid pG5ElbLuc along with a GAL4 fusion expression vector containing MEF2C for 3 hr and then treated with 5 μM XMD8-92 for a further 16 hr. The luciferase activities were normalized against cells transfected with pG5ElbLuc and pGAL4 reporter plasmid alone, whose value was taken as 1. n = 3, ± SEM, *p < 0.01.
(E) HeLa cells were infected with Ad-EV or Ad-BMK1(AEF), as indicated, 24 hr prior to treatment with or without XMD8-92 (5 μM) for 48 hr, followed by MTT assays. % growth inhibition = (1- MTT value of cells in each experimental group/MTT value of cells treated with Ad-EV only) × 100. n = 3, ± SEM.
(F) Immunofluorescent analysis of CD31 (red) and TUNEL (green) in heart sections from control and XMD8-92 treated. DNase treatments were used as positive controls for TUNEL staining. Scale bar, 100 μm. n = 6 mice, n = 10 slices. (see also Figure S1, Table S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5)