Figure 3.

Cellular cholesterol extraction (continuous lines) and cellular cholesterol content (dashed lines) in cyclodextrin-treated ABAE (open symbols) and SMCs (solid symbols). Cells were first labeled with [³H]-cholesterol (0.5 μCi/mL) for 36 h at 37°C and then equilibrated in DMEM/0.05% BSA for 24 h at 37°C. After a 2 h incubation period with different CDs (1 mM), the amounts of [³H]-cholesterol contained in the medium (in percentage) and within the cells (in DPM/μg of proteins) were measured. For cholesterol extraction data, all results referred to control condition (no CD, only DMEM) which is set to 100%. Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM (n = 15).