Figure 2.

Effect of transplantation of mouse MSCs on high-fat diet-fed apoE^−/− mice. (A): Mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells (1.5 × 10⁴ cells) were treated without or with 50 μg/ml oxLDL in the absence or presence of indirect coculture with mouse MSCs (5 × 10³ cells) in each well of a 24-well plate for 24 hours, followed by cell recovery for Western blot analysis. (B–D): High-fat diet-fed apoE^−/− mice treated without (PBS, vehicle control) or with MSCs (2 × 10⁵ cells) were sacrificed at 1 week after treatment. (B): The thoracic aortic rings were isolated freshly for determining the concentration-response curves of acetylcholine-dependent relaxation (left), sodium nitroprusside-dependent relaxation (middle), and phenylephrine-dependent contraction (right) (n = 5–6 in each group). ∗, p < .05; ∗∗, p < .01; ∗∗∗, p < .001 MSC versus vehicle control at the indicated concentrations. (C): The aortas subjected to plaque formation analysis by Oil Red O staining were longitudinally incised. Representative atherosclerotic lesions are red in color. (D): Representative aortic root microsections show the plaque formation (left). Right: Quantitative data are expressed as percentages of the total luminal surface area of the aorta (n = 3–4 in each group). ∗, p < .05. (E): Immunostaining of phospho-Akt and phospho-eNOS protein expression (left). Representative aortic root sections show phospho-Akt and phospho-eNOS expression in the endothelial lining. Right: Quantitative data are expressed as percentages of immunopositive cells of total endothelial lining cells (n = 3–4 in each group). ∗, p < .05. Scale bars = 500 μm (D), 50 μm (E). Magnification, ×40 (C), ×400 (D). Abbreviations: eNOS, endothelial nitric-oxide synthase; MSC, mesenchymal stem cell; oxLDL, oxidized low-density lipoprotein; p-Akt, phospho-Akt; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; p-eNOS, phospho-eNOS.