FIG. 2.

SERPINA3K attenuated overexpression of CTGF in the retinas with diabetic retinopathy and in retinal cells treated with high glucose. A: STZ-induced diabetic rats (DM) received an intravitreal injection of Ad-SA3K, with Ad-LacZ as control. Four weeks after the injection, retinal levels of SERPINA3K and CTGF were measured by Western blot analysis using 100 μg of retinal proteins from each rat. B: Retinal levels of SERPINA3K and CTGF were quantified by densitometry from three independent experiments and normalized by β-actin levels (*P < 0.05, means ± SD, n = 6). C and D: rMC-1 cells (C) and HTERT RPE-1 cells (D) were exposed to low-glucose (LG, 5 mmol/l d-glucose + 25 mmol/l l-glucose) and high-glucose (HG, 30 mmol/l d-glucose) media with various concentrations of SERPINA3K for 24 h. Cellular CTGF levels were measured by Western blot analysis and normalized by β-actin levels.