Fig. 3.

VEGF-B up- and down-regulates the expression of antioxidative and prooxidative genes. (A) Using a high-throughput PCR array assay, we found that VEGF-B treatment markedly up-regulated the expression of many critical antioxidative genes in the retinas, including Gpx1, Sod1, Prdx5, Prdx6-rs1, Txnrd3, Sod2, and Gpx5. This finding was also confirmed by a microarray assay using primary mSMCs. (B) A high-throughput PCR array assay shows that VEGF-B down-regulated the expression of many oxidative stress genes, such as Ptgs1, Nox4, and Ncf2. This finding was also confirmed by a microarray assay using mSMCs. (C and D) In VEGF-B–treated retinas of rd1 mice, up- and down-regulation of the antioxidative and prooxidative genes by VEGF-B, respectively, was confirmed by real-time PCR (n = 8).