Fig. 5

EPAC1 protein levels dramatically decreased in foam-hcVSMCs under hypoxia. A Thin-layer chromatography analysis of intracellular cholesteryl ester (CE), TG (triglyceride) and free cholesterol (FC) content of control hcVSMC (unexposed to LDL or exposed to native (nLDL)) or foam hcVSMC (exposed to aggregated LDL (agLDL) for 24 h). Bar graphs showing intracellular CE/FC ratio as marker of foam cell formation. Results are presented as the mean ± SD from three different experiments performed in duplicate B Western blot analysis of EPAC1 protein levels (n = 5 exp. by duplicate in normoxic conditions and n = 6 exp. by duplicate in hypoxic conditions). EPAC1 protein levels were normalized to normalized to the endogenous control gapdh and to reference values (SMC unexposed to LDL under normoxia). hcVSMC human coronary vascular smooth muscle cells, N normoxia, H hypoxia