Protective Effect of Uric Acid on ox-LDL-Induced HUVECs Injury via Keap1-Nrf2-ARE Pathway

Figure 4

Appropriate concentration uric acid attenuated ox-LDL-induced injured in HUVECs. HUVECs were incubated with ox-LDL (100 μg/mL) for 24 h, with or without uric acid (5 mg/dL) preincubated for 2 h. Or HUVECs were incubated with uric acid (5 mg/dL) alone for 24 h. (a) Representative immunofluorescence image of DHE and ICAM1.  μm. (b) Densitometry analysis of immunofluorescent intensity of DHE in the HUVECs in different groups. (c) Densitometry analysis of immunofluorescent intensity of ICAM1 in the HUVECs in different groups. (d–f) Representative images showed adhesive monocytes to HUVECs under uric acid (5 mg/dL) treatment or ox-LDL (100ug/mL) treatment or uric acid (5 mg/dL)+ ox-LDL (100 μg/mL). HUVECs were stained by Mito-Green, determined by green fluorescence, while THP-1 cells were stained by Dil, determined by yellow fluorescence. Quantitation of adhesive monocytes in different groups was presented in (f). (g) The effect of uric acid and ox-LDL on ET-1 expression in HUVECs. ET-1 released into the supernatant was measured by ELISA. (h) The effect of uric acid and ox-LDL on NO production in HUVECs. The results were independently repeated at least three times. DHE: dihydroethidium; HUVECs: human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The statistical analyses were done using GraphPad Prism V-7.0 software. Data are expressed as the (). One-way ANOVA and unpaired -test was used in statistical analyses (/group). , , , and versus the control. ^#, ^##, ^###, ^#### versus the ox-LDL group.

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