Fig. 4.

Atorvastatin regulates the expression of genes and proteins relevant to endothelial dysfunction in endothelial cells exposed to patient serum. a HUVECs were treated with vehicle (0.1% DMSO) or Atorvastatin (10 µM in 0.1%DMSO) for 24 h in the presence of COVID-19 patient serum before RNA was collected for real-time PCR analysis of gene expression. Genes related to vascular homeostasis and anti-thrombosis (KLF2, KLF4, NOS3, and Thbd) and antioxidant status (NQO1) were presented as fold changes over control. N = 4. b HUVECs were treated as described in a, and expression of genes related to inflammation (VCAM1, CCL2, and DKK1), vascular tone (EDN1 or ET1), and angiogenesis (ANGPT2) were presented as fold changes over control. N = 4. c HUVECs were treated as described in a before whole-cell lysate was collected for western blot to determne protein expression of eNOS, VCAM1, and KLF2 using GAPDH as the loading control. N = 3