Fig. 2.

Pulmonary adventitial fibroblasts isolated from severely hypertensive calves (PH-Fibs) express markedly higher levels of OPN and OPN receptor CD44 than control fibroblasts (CO-Fibs). A: quantitative real-time PCR demonstrates that PH-Fibs express 8-fold higher OPN mRNA levels than CO-Fibs. Data presented are relative OPN transcript abundance to HPRT. B and C: at the protein level, as shown by immunofluorescent staining (B) and Western blotting (C), OPN expression levels are markedly higher in PH-Fibs compared with CO-Fibs. Scale bar in B = 50 μM. C: Western blotting (top) was quantified by densitometric scanning analysis (bottom); data are representative of at least 3 independent experiments. D: RT-PCR analysis demonstrates that PH-Fibs express OPN receptor CD44 at levels 2.58 ± 0.59-fold higher than those in CO-Fibs. Data presented are relative OPN transcript abundance to HPRT. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.