Anti-inflammatory Role of Carotenoids in Endothelial Cells Derived from Umbilical Cord of Women Affected by Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Figure 2

The effect of carotenoids on adhesion molecule membrane exposure and total expression after TNF-α-stimulation in C- and GD-HUVECs. VCAM-1 (a) and ICAM-1 (b) membrane exposure in C- and GD-HUVECs untreated (basal) and incubated for 24 h with BC or Lyc (2.5 μmol/L) and then stimulated for 16 h with or without TNF-α (1 ng/mL). Quantitative data in histograms result from 4 different experiments (). The results are expressed as the percentage of positive cells for surface exposure on the plasma membrane of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 in not permeabilized cells. Representative Western blot and its histogram for VCAM-1 (c) and ICAM-1 (d) total protein expression in C- and GD-HUVECs untreated (Basal) and incubated for 24 h with 2.5 μmol/L of BC (left panels) or Lyc (right panels) and then stimulated for 16 h with or without TNF-α (1 ng/mL). Quantitative data in histograms result from 3 different experiments (). The results for the VCAM-1 or ICAM-1 and β-actin ratio are expressed as arbitrary units, and data are shown as fold increase vs. basal condition of the from three independent experiments. ANOVA and Bonferroni multiple comparison test: vs. basal C-HUVECs, vs. TNF-α C-HUVECs, vs. basal GD-HUVECs, vs. TNF-α GD-HUVECs. Student’s -test: in (a) and (b), and basal GD-HUVECs vs. basal C-HUVECs, TNF-α GD-HUVECs vs. TNF-α C-HUVECs; in (c) and (d), and TNF-α GD-HUVECs vs. TNF-α C-HUVECs.

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