Fig. 1.

Expression of adrenergic receptor genes in immortalized and Ras-transformed vascular endothelial cells and in vitro sensitivity to propranolol. (A) Relative mRNA expression of ADRB1 and ADRB2 adrenergic receptor genes in immortalized (HMEC-1, BMhTERT-1 and BMST) and Ras-transformed (BMST-Ras) endothelial cell lines as determined by qRT-PCR using GAPDH as control gene. SK-N-MC neuroepithelioma cell line and HeLa cervical cancer cell line were included as positive controls for ADRB1 and ADRB2 expression, respectively. (B) Growth inhibition assay performed on BMST (black) and BMST-Ras (red) cell lines using Alamar Blue after 72 h incubation with propranolol. Points, % of cell proliferation as compared to untreated control cells, means of eight individual experiments; bars, 95% confidence interval; log scale for x axis.