Fig. 3. Antioxidants decrease the transcriptional activity of hypoxia inducible factor-1 and the expression of VEGF in human PDLFs. (A) PDLFs were transiently transfected with EPO-luc, an erythropoietin enhancer-driven luciferase reporter gene and incubated for 24 h in the presence or absence of desferoxamine (200 μM, DFO), resveratrol (10 nM, Res) or N-acetylcysteine (20 mM, NAC). Next, the luciferase reporter assay was performed. Data represent the mean ± S.D. of six independent experiments. *p < 0.05, compared to DFO treatment alone. (B) PDLFs were incubated for 24 h in the presence or absence of antioxidants under the normoxic or hypoxic conditions (Hyp), and quantitative RT-PCR was performed to determine the levels of VEGF mRNA. The data represent the mean ± S.D. of three independent experiments. *p < 0.05, compared to control (normoxia). #p < 0.05.