Rapamycin and FTY720 Alleviate Atherosclerosis by Cross Talk of Macrophage Polarization and Autophagy

Figure 2

Rapamycin had no effect on foam cell polarization. (a) Oil Red O staining demonstrated that rapamycin inhibited macrophage transformation to foam cells but did not affect foam cells; (b) percentage of foam cells with high intensity from 3 experimental iterations: 6 views were analyzed from 2 randomly selected staining wells; P < .05 and P < .01 vs. ox-LDL; (c) real-time PCR showing Arg1, Mrc1, IL-6, and iNOS expression for various rapamycin-treated groups; (d) western blot showing expression of LC3, IL-6, COX2, TGF-β, and ARG1 in foam cells treated with various concentrations of rapamycin; (e) results shown representative of 3 independent experiments, each experiment repeated 3 times. Protein and GAPDH relative levels are shown as histograms. P < .05 and P < .01 vs. untreated controls; MΦ, macrophage; bar, 100 μm.

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