Figure 8. cIAP2 is involved in the pro-survival effect of NOR-1 in VSMC exposed to CoCl₂.

VSMC were lentiviral transduced to over-express NOR-1 (pNOR-1) or transduced with the pLVX empty vector (pLVX), transfected with a siRNA against cIAP2 (sicIAP2; black bars) or a random siRNA (siRandom; white bars), and exposed to CoCl₂ for 16 hours. (a) Analysis of caspase 3/7 activity in VSMC treated as indicated above. Results are relative to caspase activity in VSMC control (pLVX transduced cells transfected with siRandom) (n = 7). *P < 0.001 vs. pLVX and siRandom; ^†P < 0.0001 vs. pLVX and sicIAP2; ^#P < 0.0001 vs. pNOR-1 and siRandom. (b) Apoptosis evaluated by FACS after annexin V-PC5 staining in VSMC treated as indicated above. Data were expressed as percentages of the total cell population (n = 6). *P < 0.0001 vs. pLVX and siRandom; ^†P = 0.016 vs. pLVX and siRandom; ^†P < 0.001 vs. pLVX and sicIAP2; ^#P = 0.004 vs. pNOR-1 and siRandom. (c) mRNA levels of cIAP2 analyzed by real-time PCR in cells as indicated above. Results are expressed relative to cIAP2 mRNA levels in control cells (VSMC transduced with pLVX and transfected with siRandom) (n = 6). *P < 0.005 vs. pLVX and siRandom; ^†P < 0.05 vs. pLVX and sicIAP2; ^#P < 0.0001 vs. pNOR-1 and siRandom.