Proteasome Activators, PA28α and PA28β, Govern Development of Microvascular Injury in Diabetic Nephropathy and Retinopathy

Figure 5

PA28α and PA28β regulate the diabetic retinal microvascular injury. (a) Light microscopic images of the flat mounted retinae from wild type and Pa28αβDKO mice following four or six months of STZ injection. The arrowheads point to the degenerate capillaries. Scale bars, 10 μm. (b) Quantitation of the number of degenerate capillaries in wild type/STZ and Pa28αβDKO/SZT mice. (c) Western blot analysis of the conditioned media of cultured wild type and Pa28αβDKO RPC under different glucose conditions and osmolarity treatment. (d) qPCR analysis of OPN and (e) MCP-1 mRNA in wild type and Pa28αβDKO RPC under different glucose concentrations. (f) Western blot analysis of OPN and FN in the conditioned media obtained from various vascular and perivascular cell types under different glucose conditions. Results presented as mean ± SEM. , .

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