Behavior of Smooth Muscle Cells under Hypoxic Conditions: Possible Implications on the Varicose Vein Endothelium

Figure 1

(a) Normalized cell index of cultures with control smooth muscle cells (CV-SMCs, green line) and varicose veins smooth muscle cells (VV-SMCs, purple line) veins under hypoxic conditions. (b) Images of CV-SMCs and VV-SMCs in which the differential expression of α-actin (A AND D) can be observed. Different morphology and proliferation were observed for the CV-SMCs and VV-SMCs under normoxic (B AND E) and hypoxic conditions (C AND F) via inverted microscopy. (c) Quantification of the percentage of dead cells in the CV-SMCs and VV-SMCs under normoxic (NOR) and hypoxic conditions (HYP). p<0.05 (); p<0.005 ().

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