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. 2009 Mar 11;4(3):e4782. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004782

Figure 6. Effects of 5MTHF and vitamin B12 supplementation on heat shock protein 70 associated with red cell membrane from CF patients.

Figure 6

(A) HSP70 associated with red cell membrane from CF patients were separated by mono-dimensional electrophoresis. Normal red cells are in line 1; red cells respectively from patient 1 (P1), patient 3 (P3) and patient 7 (P7) are in lanes 2, 4, 6 at baseline and in lanes 3, 5, 7 after treatment. (B) Graph reporting the immuno-blot analysis for the quantification of HSP70 expression as detected by densitometry in normal controls (black bar) and in CF patients (gray bar); data are presented as percentage of baseline values (n = 11). (C) Schematic diagram of the working hypothesis. Cellular membrane lipids and proteins are exposed to chronic oxidative stress in CF patients. The altered metabolism of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) contributes to cellular damage, reducing membrane fluidity and increasing pro-oxidant environment. The 5-MTHF and vitamin B12 supplementation increases the levels of PUFAs and reduces both protein oxidative damage and HSP70 association on red cell membranes of CF patients.