Fig. 7.

Hypoxic/ischemic conditions modulate ACE2 expression pattern in pericytes. A) Western blot analysis shows that ACE2 expression in human brain vascular pericytes increases 24 h after exposure to hypoxic (hypoxia) or ischemic-like (OGD) conditions. B) Western blot analysis shows that ACE2 expression in brain pericytes continues to increase under prolonged hypoxic conditions to reach a peak at 1 week. C) Western blot analysis shows that ACE2 expression in response to 10 nM S protein exposure for 24 h is exacerbated in brain pericytes pre-exposed to hypoxic conditions. D) Representative images of immunofluorescence staining that illustrate ACE2 expression pattern in response to S protein exposure for 24 h in brain pericytes pre-exposed to hypoxic conditions, outlining a possible redistribution at the cell membrane (white arrowheads). Data are mean ± SEM (n = 3 independent experiments/ condition; XTT cell viability assay n = 9–12 wells/ condition). *P < 0.05/ **P < 0.01 compared with normoxia vehicle-treated pericytes, and ^#P < 0.05 compared with hypoxia vehicle-treated pericytes (one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Bonferroni's multiple comparison post-hoc test). Vehicle, ddH₂O; OGD, oxygen and glucose deprivation; 48H, 48  hours; 72H, 72  hours; 1 W, 1 week; XTT, 2/3-bis-(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide.