Figure 2 | Cell Death & Disease

Figure 2

From: TGF-β/Smad3 inhibit vascular smooth muscle cell apoptosis through an autocrine signaling mechanism involving VEGF-A

Figure 2

TGF-β/Smad3 treatment stimulates VEGF mRNA and protein expression and secretion from rat vascular SMCs. (a) Rat vascular SMCs were infected with either AdGFP or AdSmad3 followed by stimulation with TGF-β (5 ng/ml). Cells were collected at the indicated time points following TGF-β stimulation and mRNA levels of VEGF-164 were measured by quantitative RT-PCR. (b) VEGF-164 protein levels in cell lysates were measured by western blot analysis and normalized by β-actin (lower panels show representative western blots). (c) VEGF-164 protein levels in the culture media were also measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Each bar represents mean±S.E.M. of three independent experiments (*P<0.05 and **P<0.01 compared with the AdGFP control)

Back to article page