Figure 2.

Lack of PGC-1α promoted high glucose-induced cell injury and apoptosis in HUVECs. (A and B) Western blot (A) and qPCR (B) showed that infection with adenovirus containing PGC-1α small hairpin RNA (Ad-PGC-1α) at multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10, 20 and 40 for 24 h significantly decreased PGC-1α expression, but transfection with negative shRNA (Ad-Scr) did not change endogenous PGC-1α expression. (C) HUVECs were infected with Ad-Scr or Ad-shPGC-1α in the absence or presence of high glucose. Cell viability was determined by CCK-8. (D) After treatment as described in (C), HUVECs apoptosis was determined by Annexin V/PI staining followed by flow cytometry. (E). Quantitative analysis of the percentage of apoptotic cells. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control, ##P < 0.01 vs. high glucose alone, n = 6.