Supplemental Material

This article contains the following supporting material:

• Figure 1 - Primer extension and 5’RACE analyses of intron 14 obtained rat A7r5 SMC. Panel A: Two antisense primers (blue) were synthesized and hybridized with 20 μg of total RNA isolated from A7r5 cells. After 1^st strand cDNA synthesis, the RNA-cDNA complexes were denatured and separated on 5% or 8 % PAGE. The sizes of the products were determined by comparison with P³²-labeled 100 bp or 10 bp ladders. The transcription initiation nucleotide (+1) is indicated in red and the translation initiation codon (ATG) is in green. Panels B & C: Autoradiographs showing the products obtained using primers 1(B) and 2 (C). Panel D: 5’RACE was performed with the primer 1(blue) and a GeneRacer 5’Nested primer (not shown). The size of 5’RACE product was determined on 2 % agarose gel by comparison with 100 bp ladders.

• Figure 2 - In vivo effects of inhibiting MEK on blood pressure in 16 week old SHR or age-matched WKY Rats. DMSO or U0126 was continuously administered for 3 weeks to SHR or WKY Rats. Systolic blood pressure was measured every 5 days. Values are mean±SE, n = 6, *SHR + U0126 vs. SHR +DMSO, P<0.001.