Reciprocal Effects of Oxidative Stress on Heme Oxygenase Expression and Activity Contributes to Reno-Vascular Abnormalities in EC-SOD Knockout Mice

Figure 3

(a) Superoxide levels in femoral arteries of WT mice, EC-SOD^(−/−) mice, and mice injected with CoPP. Superoxide levels were determined as described in methods. Results are mean ± SE, 𝑛=4; *𝑃<0.01 versus WT, ^‡𝑃<0.01 versus EC-SOD^(−/−); ⁺𝑃<0.05 versus WT + CoPP. (b) Dose-response curves for acetylcholine-induced vascular relaxation after preconstriction with phenylephrine. Results are mean ± SE, 𝑛=4; *𝑃<0.05 versus WT, ^‡𝑃<0.05 versus EC-SOD^(−/−), ⁺𝑃<0.05 versus WT + CoPP, and (c) systolic blood pressure measurements at the completion of the study (𝑛=4). Mice were injected with CoPP once a week as described in Methods. Blots are representative of four separate experiments. Results are expressed as mean ± SE, *𝑃<0.05 versus WT, ^‡𝑃<0.01 versus EC-SOD^(−/−), ⁺𝑃<0.05 versus WT + CoPP mice, and Western blot and densitometry analysis of (d) eNOS and p-eNOS.

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