The prosurvival protein BAG3: a new participant in vascular homeostasis

Figures

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  Figure 1. (a) Vascular response of phenylephrine-precontracted mice mesenteric arteries to increasing doses of BAG3 (0.006–12 μg/ml) (n=6), (b) and after 30 min pretreatment with L-NAME (300 μmol/L; n=6), *P<0.05, **P<0.01 versus BAG3 alone. (c) Representative immunoblot of mesenteric arteries, untreated, treated with acetylcholine (Ach) or with BAG3; right, Columns are the mean±S.D. of 5 independent experiments. *P<0.05. (d) Vascular response of phenylephrine-precontracted mice mesenteric arteries to increasing doses of BAG3 (0.006–12 μg/ml) in presence of PI3K inhibitor (wortmannin 10 μM, 1 h, (n=6), *P<0.05, **P<0.01 versus. BAG3 alone. (e) Representative immunoblot of mesenteric arteries, treated with acetylcholine (Ach), with BAG3 or with BAG3 plus wortmannin; Bottom, columns are the mean±S.D. of 5 independent experiments. (f) Representative immunoblot performed on HUVEC treated with different doses of BAG3, Acetylcholine (ACh) in presence or absence of wortmannin. (g) HUVEC viability at 24 h after treatment with different doses of BAG3 was assessed by the trypan blue exclusion test. The data presented are the mean±S.D. of three independent experiments

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  Figure 2. (a) Systolic blood pressure (SBP) in C57BL/6 mice treated with vehicle or with different dosage of BAG3 (2.5; 5–10 mg/kg) (n=6/group). Dotted line indicate the single intraperitoneal injection of BAG3 or vehicle. The data are given as mean±S.E.M. *P<0.05 versus all (unpaired t-test). (b) Graphs show the dose–response curves of ex vivo mesenteric arteries, excised after blood pressure measurement from mice after single intraperitoneal injection with vehicle or BAG3 at different dosage, to acetylcholine (ACh, from 10−9 M to 10−5 M). Values are means±S.E.M. n=6 experiments. *P<0.05 versus all. (c) Representative immunoblot for eNOS phosphorylated on Serine1177, total eNOS, AKT phosphorylated on threonine308 and total AKT in mesenteric arteries obtained from mice treated with vehicle or with different osage of BAG3 (2.5; 5-10 mg/kg); Columns are the mean±S.D. of five independent experiments. *P<0.05

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  Figure 3. (a) Systolic blood pressure (SBP) in C57BL/6 (WT) and in eNOS KO mice treated with vehicle or with BAG3 (10 mg/kg) (n=6/group). Dotted line indicate the single intraperitoneal injection of BAG3 or vehicle. The data are given as mean±S.E.M. *P<0.05 versus WT+Vehicle. (b) Graphs show the dose–response curves of ex vivo mesenteric arteries, excised after blood pressure measurement from WT and eNOS KO mice after single intraperitoneal injection with Vehicle or BAG3, to acetylcholine (ACh, from 10−9 M to 10−5 M). Values are means±S.E.M. n=6 experiments. *P<0.05 versus WT+Vehicle; #P<0.05 versus WT+BAG3; §P<0.05 versus WT+Vehicle and versus WT+BAG3