FIGURE 2.

Gene expression of components of the kallikrein-kinin system and neurotransmitter receptors after chronic treatment with 1 μm HOE-140 along rat neural differentiation. A, B1BkR gene expression could not be detected during 14 days of neurosphere differentiation, whereas B2BkR and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) expression showed an initial reduction after differentiation induction. B2BkR expression increased again during the final differentiation. B, B2BkR gene expression after NPC treatment with HOE-140 during 7 days. C, specific B2BkR inhibition for 7 days caused an alteration in ionotropic and metabotropic purinergic receptor gene expression. D and E, chronic HOE-140 treatment led to reduced muscarinic receptor gene expression as well as key proteins involved in nitric oxide formation (neuronal nitric-oxide synthase, nNOS; endothelial nitric-oxide synthase, eNOS; argininosuccinate synthetase, ASS). The data are representative for three independent experiments conducted in triplicate and shown as mean ± S.D. (*, p < 0.05).