Figure 5. The effect of endothelium-specific Ass deletion on relaxation responses of saphenous arteries to sodium nitroprusside.

Relaxation of PHE pre-contracted (10 µM) saphenous arteries of 12- (panel A) and 34-week-old healthy (panel B) and 22-week-old diabetic (C) male mice to SNP (0.01–10 µM) was determined by wire myography. Black squares: control mice; white circles: Ass-KO^Tie2. All experiments were performed in the presence of L-NAME (100 µM) and INDO (10 µM). Values are means ± SEM (n = 5–7; for the number of animals per individual experiment, see Table 1).