Figure 4.

AKT protein expression of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) exposed to high and/or low glucose. Alternating low and high glucose induces upregulation of AKT protein expression in endothelial cells at population doubling level (PDL) 25. HUVECs were incubated with each of the previously described glucose treatments at the indicated PDL time points. (a) Western blot analyses of AKT expression were performed with 20 μg of cell lysate. (b) Relative AKT protein expression was quantified by densitometric analysis associated with Licor Odyssey software (data are normalized against GAPDH and expressed as means ± SE). Data are presented as means ± SE in four experiments. *p < .05, significantly different from control HUVECs cultured in the absence of high glucose.