Fig. 2.

Pericytes exhibit contractile phenotype upon S protein exposure. A) Representative images of F-actin staining using Alexa Fluor®546 phalloidin shows that the morphology of human brain vascular pericytes is disrupted (white arrowheads) upon exposure to S protein for 6 h and 24 h. B) Western blot analysis shows that expression of the contractile protein α-SMA increases in brain pericytes after exposure to 10 nM of S protein for 6 h. C) Western blot analysis shows that α-SMA expression in brain pericytes remains increased 24 h after exposure to 10 and 15 nM of S protein. D) Representative images of immunofluorescence staining that illustrate the expression pattern of α-SMA in brain pericytes in a dose-dependent manner upon exposure to S protein for 24 h. Data are mean ± SEM (n = 3 independent experiments/ condition). *P < 0.05 compared with vehicle-treated pericytes (two-tailed unpaired t-test). Vehicle, ddH₂O; 6H, 6 hours; 24H, 24  hours.