Fig. 3.

Effects of hesperetin on cholesterol accumulation and cholesterol efflux in THP-1 macrophage foam cells. THP-1 macrophages were treated with 80 μg/mL ox-LDL or labeled cholesterol alone or in combination with hesperetin (10 μmol/L, 50 μmol/L and 100 μmol/L) for 24 h. Control cells were cultured for the same time without any treatments. (a) The levels of total cholesterol (TC), free cholesterol (FC) and cholesterol ester (CE) in THP-1 macrophage foam cells were measured using an enzymatic method. (b) The cholesterol esterification rate (CER) is calculated as the ratio of CE to TC levels. (c) A commercial assay was used to determine cholesterol efflux as described above. The results are presented as the means ± SD from five independent experiments each performed in triplicate. *p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01 compared with control; Δ p < 0.05 and ΔΔ p < 0.01 compared with treatment with ox-LDL or labeled cholesterol alone