Figure 4.

Increased nuclear but not mitochondrial TERT causes pathological switch form NO to H₂O₂ mediated dilation. (A) Representative images showing lentiviral overexpression of WT, MTS, or NLS mutant TERT compared to negative controls. WT-TERT had no effect on the underlying mechanism of FMD (B), while overexpression of NLS mutant TERT shifted FMD from NO (L-NAME inhibitable) to H₂O₂ (Peg-catalase inhibitable) (C). Similar to WT-TERT overexpression, MTS mutant TERT had no effect on the mechanism of dilation (D). Smooth muscle dependent dilation to papaverine was not impaired (E). * P < 0.05 2-way ANOVA RM, N = 6–8.