Figure 2
Efficacy of ultrasonic microbubble transfection (UMT, i.e., US + B + plasmid) in young and senescent EPCs and the effect on the cell number at 48 h after treatment, as evaluated by a luciferase assay (a), by cell counting with a Coulter counter (b and d) and by ELISA for VEGF expression (c). In (c) and (d), the cells were divided into 5 groups to evaluate the treatment effects of US and microbubbles in the presence or absence of plasmid on VEGF expression and the cell number. The VEGF plasmid was used in all groups except the “US + B” group. The luminescence intensity generated by luciferase expression and the expression level of the VEGF protein (in 1000 μl of pDNA-containing growth medium per well) are shown per cell (a and c). n = 9 for each bar. Note that (b) shows the number of remaining cells per well after UMT under the conditions used in (a), and that (d) shows the number of remaining cells per well after treatment under the conditions used in (c). Additionally, note that for the UMT groups, differences between the black and grey bars are indicated. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001 vs. the leftmost black bar and ###P < 0.001 vs. the leftmost grey bar. Ctrl = control. B = microbubbles. US = ultrasound. LU = luminescence unit.
