Figure 1.

Angptl2 stimulates the expression of inflammatory markers in ECs. Quantitative RT‐PCR analysis of expression of TNF‐α mRNA (a) and IL‐6 mRNA (b) was performed in ECs freshly extracted from aortas of 3‐month‐old WT and LDLr^−/−; hApoB^+/+(ATX) mice stimulated and unstimulated (control) with purified recombinant angptl2 (100 nmol/L). Results were normalized to cyclophilin A (CycloA) expression, and average gene expression level in WT control cells was arbitrarily set at 1. Data are mean±SEM of n=4 WT and n=4 ATX mice; each experiment was performed in triplicate. *P<0.05 vs control; †P<0.05 vs WT mice. Angptl2 indicates angiopoietin like‐2; EC, endothelial cell; RT‐PCR, real‐time polymerase chain reaction; TNF‐α, tumor necrosis factor α; IL, interleukin; WT, wild type; LDL, low‐density lipoprotein; ΔΔCT, target gene threshold cycle quantification.