Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 5 pp 7627—7643

Figure 3. Nicotine exacerbates the pro-apoptotic effect of BMDMs on endotheliocytes. (A) Proportion of apoptotic endotheliocytes co-incubated with BMDMs pretreated with nicotine were analyzed by an AnnexinV-PI assay (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, n=5). (B) A caspase-3 activity assay was employed to detect the apoptotic degree of endotheliocytes co-incubated with BMDMs pretreated with nicotine (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, n=3). (C) The apoptotic degree of endotheliocytes induced by BMDMs pretreated with nicotine was analyzed by a TUNEL assay and binding of the CD34 antibody to endotheliocytes (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, n=5).