Fig 4. CRH decreases cholesterol efflux.

(A) BODIPY-labeled cholesterol efflux assay. Murine peritoneal macrophages treated with or without CRH for 18 hours were labeled with BODIPY-cholesterol, equilibrated with acyl-coA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) inhibitor-containing medium, and incubated with apoAI. The medium containing BODIPY-cholesterol excreted from the cells was measured with a fluorometer. Results from triplicate experiments were compared. (B) DiI-oxLDL uptake assay. Murine peritoneal macrophages were treated with or without CRH for 18 hours and then exposed to DiI-oxLDL for 30 minutes. Macrophages with DiI-oxLDL uptake were assayed by confocal fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry to measure the mean fluorescence intensity from the internalized DiI-oxLDL (right graph). Data is presented as mean ± SEM. * P<0.05, n.s.; no statistical significance.