Fig. 4.

A. Rat aortic SMC were incubated with either 10 ng/ml TNF, 10 μM SPC or TNF + SPC for 24 h in the presence of 1 μM 1400W (a selective NOS2 inhibitor). BMDM were incubated separately with 10 ng/ml TNF only for 24 h. Rat aortic SMC were subsequently co-cultured with BMDM for 15 min and adherent BMDM counted. Results are presented as fold change of adhesion relative to vehicle incubation, n = 8. Data are expressed as mean ± sem. B. Rat aortic SMC were incubated as above for 24 h and protein extracts subjected to immunoblotting with anti-NOS2 antibody. Representative immunoblots are shown together with mean data (mean ± sem, n = 3). Results are normalised to vehicle treatment and presented as fold change of NOS2 expression. GAPDH served as a protein loading control. C. Rat aortic SMC were incubated as above for 24 h. The nitrate concentration in conditioned media was measured. Data are expressed as mean ± sem, n = 4. ∗ denotes p < 0.05.