Fig. 4.
Evaluation of mRNA relative levels of several senescence-associated genes by real-time PCR. Cells exposed to 250 μM CuSO4 presented a statistically significant overexpression of p21, ApoJ, TGF β1, IGFBP3, and HO-1 (respectively 2.3-, 2.5-, 2.3-, 3.0-, and 3.4-fold increase compared with control cells). mRNA levels of fibronectin were also increased in cells treated with copper, although this variation was not statistically significant when compared with control cells. Data are presented as mean ± SEM from at least three independent experiments. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 when compared with control