Fig. 6

Effects of diacerein and IL-1β inhibition on AQP and sodium transporter expression after LPS treatment in HK-2 cells. a-d The cells were pretreated with diacerein (1 μM) for 1 h, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) siRNA (Si- IL-1β), or negative siRNA (NS) for 48 h before lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 1 μg/mL) incubation for a further 48 h. Levels of IL-1β (a), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (b), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) (c) and nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS-2) (d) induced by LPS were inhibited by diacerein or IL-1β siRNA treatment. e-j Protein expression of aquaporin 1 (AQP1) (e), AQP2 (f), AQP (g), Na,K-ATPase α1 (h), apical type 3 Na/H exchanger (NHE3) (i) and Na-K-2Cl cotransporter (NKCC2) (j) was examined by western blotting. LPS-induced decreases of AQP and sodium transporter expression were attenuated by diacerein or IL-1β siRNA treatment. **P < 0.01 vs. control, ##P < 0.01 vs. LPS, n = 6