Figure 2.

Human plasma protects endothelial cells against hypoxia–reoxygenation and serum starvation‐induced apoptosis. HPMECs were cultured and treated for 24 hrs with various concentrations of HP according to the procedure described in Scheme A. The HR/SS (−) control cells were cultured under normoxia and without serum starvation during the whole procedure. At the end of the experiment, the cells were lysed and subjected to detection of DNA fragmentation using the Cell Death Detection kit (A). Alternatively, conditioned media were collected at the end of the experiment and subjected to caspase 3/7 activity analysis using the Caspase‐Glo 3/7 Assay kit (B). Values were mean ± S.E.M. from three independent experiments. Different symbols indicate P < 0.05 between the groups; identical symbols indicate no significant difference. Note: Different lower‐case letters denote significant statistical difference (P < 0.05) among different groups. HR: hypoxia–reoxygenation; SS: serum starvation; RLUs: relative light units.