Gene expression in HepG2 cells after treatment with captopril.

Gene expression was measured by quantitative real-time RT-PCR in HepG2 cells after treatment with 10 µg/ml cyclosporine (n = 3, respectively) for 72 h. Furthermore, cells were treated in parallel with 10 µg/ml ACE inhibitor captopril (cyclosporine + captopril, 72h), or with cyclosporine for 72h and subsequently with 10 µg/ml captopril for 4 h (cyclosporine + captopril, 4h). Transcript abundance of HNF4α, AGT, and AGTR1 are determined relative to expression of mitATPase6, which served as a housekeeping gene. Data are given as relative units (mean ± SD). Furthermore, transcript abundance of HNF4α, AGT, and AGTR1 in untreated HepG2 cells was set to 100 and values for cyclosporine or cyclosporine/captopril treatment represent transcript abundance relative to the control.