Figure 3.

(a) Response of aortic rings taken from normal rats to an IL-1β (10 ng ml⁻¹) spontaneous loss of PE-induced tone. Rings were treated with either doxycycline (30 or 100 μM) or ddH₂O vehicle (^*P<0.05 vs IL-1β, one-way ANOVA, n=3 rings taken from distinct animals/group). (b) A representative zymogram of MMP-2 activity in incubation media of aortic rings taken from normal rats and incubated for 6 h at 37°C in the presence or absence of IL-1β (10 ng ml⁻¹) (^*P<0.05, independent samples t-test, n=6 rings taken from distinct animals/group). (c) Left: contractile response of aortic rings taken from normal rats and incubated for 6 h at 37°C in the presence or absence of IL-1β (10 ng ml⁻¹)±GM6001 (10 or 30 μM) and then placed in organ baths and exposed to increasing concentrations of PE. Right: summary data of maximal contractile response to PE (^*P<0.05 vs Control, one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher's LSD test, n=8–13 aortic rings taken from distinct animals/group). (d) Contractile response of aortic rings as prepared in (b) to 75 mM KCl (^*P<0.05 vs Control, one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher's LSD test, n=8–13 aortic rings taken from distinct animals/group).