Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 15 pp 5445—5462

Figure 3. CRP increases cellular oxidative stress and oxidative stress-downstream signaling in HAoSMCs. (A, B) Scatter dot plots and arithmetic means ± SEM (n=8; arbitrary units, a.u.) of NOX4 (A) and CYBA (B) relative mRNA expression in HAoSMCs treated with control (CTR) or 10 µg/ml recombinant human CRP. (C) Scatter dot plots and arithmetic means ± SEM (n=6; a.u.) of normalized total antioxidant capacity of HAoSMCs treated with control (CTR) or 10 µg/ml recombinant human CRP. (D) Representative original Western blots and scatter dot plots and arithmetic means ± SEM (n=5; a.u.) of normalized phospho-p38/total p38/GAPDH protein ratio in HAoSMCs treated with control (CTR) or 10 µg/ml recombinant human CRP. (E-G) Scatter dot plots and arithmetic means ± SEM (n=8; a.u.) of MMP2 (E), MMP9 (F) and PAI1 (G) relative mRNA expression in HAoSMCs treated with control (CTR) or 10 µg/ml recombinant human CRP. (H) Representative original Western blots and scatter dot plots and arithmetic means ± SEM (n=7; a.u.) of normalized caspase 3/GAPDH and cleaved caspase 3/GAPDH protein ratio in HAoSMCs treated with control (CTR) or 10 µg/ml recombinant human CRP. *(p<0.05), **(p<0.01), ***(p<0.001) significant vs. control HAoSMCs.