Figure 7.

O₂ supplemetation elevated vascular related gene expressions in Tibetan chickens. (A-D) Protein expression levels of the HIF-1ɑ, VEGFA, and VEGFR1 were determined by Western blotting, mRNA expression levels of the HIF-1ɑ, VEGFA, and VEGFR1 as determined by qRT-PCR. mRNA levels from the control group were normalized to a value of 1. GAPDH was used as the loading control. The results are representative of at least three independent experiments run in triplicate and expressed as the mean±SEM (n=3). (E-H) The serum protein concentrations of HIF-1ɑ, VEGFA, VEGFR2, and IL-8 were measured using an ELISA kit (n=3). (I, J) A positive correlation in VEGFA and VEGFR1were found with Pearson's test between the average blood vessel area (n=6) and average gene expression level in the tibia (n=3) during the experiment. Student's t test, ^*p<0.05, ^**p<0.01, ^***p<0.001 (A-C and E-H); ns: not significant; NHG: natural hypoxia group; OSG: oxygen supplementation group.