Fig. 2.

Ref-1 overexpression inhibited lead (Pb) induced endothelial cell death. (A) Endothelial cell morphology in the Pb (100 µM)-treated endothelial cells which were transfected with Adβgal or AdRef-1. Adenoviral transfection of AdRef-1 successfully overexpressed Ref-1 in the endothelial cells as compared with Adβgal. (B) Ref-1 overexpression induced by AdRef-1 inhibited Pb (100 µM)-induced endothelial cell death (in the bottom of Fig. 2A). (B) Summarized data was plotted in Fig. 2B. Endothelial cell viability was measured with an MTT assay as described in the Materials and Methods section. The data are expressed as the means±SEM for 4 separate experiments. ^*p<0.05 compared with control cells. ^#p<0.05 compared with Adβgal+Pb.