Fig. 3.

sGC protein level, subunit composition, and activity are altered in aortas with aneurysm. A: 50 μg of protein lysates from aortic samples prepared as described in material and methods were tested by Western blotting using antibodies against α1 (top) or β1 (middle) sGC subunits. Top also contains recombinant α1 and α1-isoB proteins as positive controls (Contr.). Equal protein loading was applied for α1 and β1 test and confirmed by anti-α-actin Western blotting (bottom). Six representative samples for control and aneurysm aortas are shown. The numbers are sample code numbers as presented in Table 1. B: densitometry analysis of α1 and β1 sGC immunoreactive bands normalized to α-actin. C: cGMP-forming activity in 250 μg of aortic lysates was determined in the presence of 10 μM DEA-NO or 1 μM BAY58-2667 activator. Circles and squares represent sGC activity determined for individual samples. Means (horizontal bars) ± SD for each group are shown. The P values for aneurysm vs. control samples are indicated.