Fig. 5.

Effects of homocysteine on expression of TIMP-2 in VSMC cultures

Homocysteine (50–5 000 μmol/L) significantly increased the expression of TIMP-2, as determined by Western blotting, in a dose-dependent manner. Columns indicate protein expression of TIMP-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, vs. control group