Fig. 4.

Real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis for inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin mRNA expression (an upper panel) and the number of inflammatory infiltrates (a lower panel) in periapical granulomas. Intensity of iNOS and VE-cadherin mRNA expression was normalized by that of glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. The number of inflammatory infiltrates was counted using paraffin sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin. The correlation coefficient (R) of 0·929 (iNOS-expressing ECs) or 0·760 [VE-cadherin-expressing endothelial cells (ECs)] was calculated, and both mRNA expressions demonstrated significant correlation (P < 0·01) with the number of inflammatory infiltrates.