Figure 4.

iNOS induction by Rg3 in the vascular smooth muscle. The endothelium-denuded vascular smooth muscle excised from rats was incubated with total ginsenosides (100 μg ml⁻¹), Rb1, Rc, Re, Rg1 (100 μg ml⁻¹) or Rg3 (10–100 μg ml⁻¹) for 8 h, and homogenated in 50 mM Tris-buffer (pH 7.5). The homogenates were centrifuged at 15,000 × g for 30 min to obtain the supernatant. The levels of iNOS in the cytosolic fractions were immunoblotted. Each lane was loaded with 30 μg of proteins. The results were confirmed by repeated experiments. GS, total ginsenosides.