Figure 7. Statins enhance TGF-β dependent ECM regulatory proteins upregulation In VSMCs.
a. Serum starved VSMCs were preincubated for 48h with several concentrations (10−4 to 10−7 mol/L) of Simvastatin (SV) or Atorvastatin (ATV), and then stimulated with 1 ng/mL TGF-β for 24h. These cells were compared with those treated with TGF-β in the absence of statin pretreatment. Figure a shows in the upper panel representative western blot and in the lower panel relative CTGF and PAI-1 protein levels expressed as mean±SEM of 4 experiments. *p<0.05 vs. control. # p<0.05 vs. TGF-β. b. Statins increase Col-1 secretion induced by TGF-β. Serum starved VSMCs were preincubated for 24h with several concentrations (10−5 to 10−7 mol/L) of Simvastatin (SV) or Atorvastatin (ATV), and then stimulated with 1 ng/mL TGF-β for additional 72h. Conditioned media were analyzed for its Col-1 content by western blot. Figure shows in the lower panel a representative western blot and in the upper panel media the mean±SEM of 4 experiments. *p<0.05 vs. control. # p<0.05 vs. TGF-β.