Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 24 pp 25505—25527

Figure 6. Upregulation of Nrf2 inhibited Ang-II-induced apoptosis and dysfunction of EPCs. EPCs were divided into treatment groups representative of the control, Ang-II, and Ang-II + Lenti-Nrf2. (A) The levels of Nrf2 mRNA were found to have increased significantly in EPCs transfected with Lenti-Nrf2. (B) The levels of Nrf2 proteins were found to have increased significantly in the Nrf2 samples transfected with Lenti-Nrf2. (C) The levels of for Bax, Bcl-2, Mit cyt-c, Cyto cyt-c, Cleaved-caspase 3, and GAPDH proteins in EPCs were detected by using Western blotting. (D) ROS production in EPCs was detected by the use of fluorescent dye H2DCFDA. Scale bars = 5 μm. (E) Tube formation abilities were assessed on Matrigel. All experiments were performed in triplicate. Scale bars = 5 μm. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, versus the control. Data are represented as mean +/- SEM.