Having demonstrated the important role of ILK, we investigated whether downregulation of
ILK by fish oil reflected inhibition of transactivation of the ILK gene. Our results show that
fish oil decreased ILK promoter activity through activation of p38 MAPK. Several
transcription factor binding sites within regions of the ILK promoter have been characterized
including regulatory elements for AP-2, NF-κB, Sp1 and others (20). As such, we evaluated
the possibility that these sites might play a role in inhibition of ILK expression by fish oil.