Figure 6.

D-Lactate induces HIF-1α protein accumulation under normoxic conditions in bFLS. bFLS were stimulated with 5 mM D-lactate for 6 h under normoxic (20% O₂) and hypoxic (1% O₂) conditions. bTNF-α was used as the positive control. HIF-1α stabilization was detected in total protein extracts by Western blot using cobalt chloride (CoCl₂) as the hypoxia-mimetic agent. (A) Representative HIF-1α immunoblot is shown. (B) Densitometry HIF-1α values were quantified using Image Studio Lite v5.2 software and normalized to β-actin. Each bar represents the mean ± SEM, n = 3. **p < 0.01; ****p < 0.0001; n.s., not significant.