Figure 4. DMF inhibits vascular muscularization in hypoxic, hypoxic/SU5416 mice and suppresses hypoxia-induced gene expression in human PASMCs.

(A,B) Intra-acinar vessels ranging from 20 to 70 μm in size were counted and categorized into non muscularized, partially muscularized, or fully muscularized. n = 4 mice per group. (C) Representative pictures of immunostaining of mouse lung sections with anti-vWF and anti-αSMA antibodies. (D) Smooth muscle cells were incubated in hypoxia (H) (1% O₂) or normoxia (N) for 24 h with 50 μM DMF or DMSO. Relative gene expression was measured with qPCR. n = 1 donor for healthy control (HC) and n = 2 donors for pulmonary hypertension (PH) cell lines. Two independent experiments were performed, each in triplicate. *P versus normoxia(N); ^†P versus hypoxia(H). Data shown as mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.