Figure 7.

Effect of AGE-modified type I collagen on the expression of eNOS in osteoblast-like cells. UMR106 and MC3T3E1 cells were cultured on control or AGE-modified type I collagen matrices at 37ºC for 24 hours. After this incubation, cell monolayers were lysated in Laemmli's buffer and electrophoresed under reducing conditions on an 8 % SDS-PAGE. Western blotting was performed, and specific bands were detected using a rabbit polyclonal antibody against eNOS. A representative blot from three independent experiments is presented (top figure). Images were scanned and analyzed by densitometry. The relative intensity of each band is shown (bottom figure) as a percentage of the corresponding basal condition (unmodified collagen), and represents the mean ± SEM. Differences between collagen vs. AGE-collagen are as follows: * p<0.02; ** p<0.002