Figure 1.
Increased angiopoietin-2 gene expression in MCA from MMD patients. (a) By screening factors involved in the biological process of angiogenesis by Angiogenesis RT2 Profiler (Qiagen), a significant angiopoietin-2 overexpression was found in samples of the M3 MCA segment of MMD patients compared to those obtained from ACVD patients (n = 3 for each group). Expression data were normalized to the expression of five housekeeping genes (ACTB, B2M, GAPDH, HPRT1, and RPLP0). Angiopoietin-2 expression in ACVD patients’ material was set as 1; mean ± SEM, *p < 0.05. (b) Qualitative measurements of Ang-1 and -2 were performed by ELISA. Protein concentrations of angiopoietin (Ang)-1 and Ang-2 were comparable in ACVD versus MMD serum as indicated by the Ang-2/Ang-1 ratio (%) being calculated for every patient.