FIGURE 5.

OxLDL treatment induces ER stress in AoSMC. A and B, quantification of transcripts coding for CHOP (A) and GRP78 (B), ER stress markers, with respect to control (CNT) in AoSMC treated for 24 h with 20 μg of nLDL or oxLDL in the absence (−) or presence (+) of 10 μg/ml LOX-1 antibody. Values are mean ± S.E. of triplicates of two independent experiments, ***, p = 0.001. C, quantitative RT-PCR analysis of HAS2 and HAS3 expression of CD-cholesterol and (22)(R)-hydrocholesterol treatment in AoSMC, each reported with respect to its control AoSMC (CNT+CD and CNT, respectively). Values are mean ± S.E. of two independent experiments, *, p < 0.05, **, p < 0.01, ***, p < 0.001.