Fig. 2.

Effects of homocysteine on activity of MMP-2 in the culture medium containing VSMCs

Homocysteine (50–1 000 μmol/L) significantly increased the activity of MMP-2, as determined by zymography, in a dose-dependent manner, and reduced the MMP-2 activity at 5 000 μmol/L homocysteine. Columns indicate the gelatinolytic activity of MMP-2 as a percentage of the 72 h intervention group (5 000 μmol/L homocysteine), and represent the mean±SE for three separate experiments performed in duplicate. The group treated with 0 μmol/L homocysteine was regarded as the control. ^& P<0.05, ^* P<0.01, ^# P<0.001, vs. control group