Adiponectin and its receptors are involved in hypertensive vascular injury

Figure 1.. Representative blots of (A) APN, AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 expression in EC, VSMC and adipocytes and (B) quantification of their expression levels as assessed by western blot analysis. Data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n=3). *P<0.05 vs. EC. APN, adiponectin; AdipoR, adiponectin receptor; EC, endothelial cell; VSMC, vascular smooth muscle cell.

Figure 2.. Expression and distribution of APN and its receptors in the vasculature. (A) Blood pressure measurements of SHAM and Ang II-infused mice. Representative immunofluorescence images of (B) APN+ and PLIN+ cells and (C) quantification of their protein levels and representative immunofluorescence images of (D) αSMA+, AdipoR1+ and AdipoR2+ cells and (E) quantification of their protein levels, in the perivascular adipocytes and VSMCs from sham and Ang II mice. DAPI counterstained for the nucleus. Scale bar, 100 µm. Data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n=5). *P<0.05 vs. sham. APN, adiponectin; Ang, angiotensin; VSMC, vascular smooth muscle cell; AdipoR, adiponectin receptor; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; αSMA, α smooth muscle actin; PLIN, perilipin.

Figure 3.. APN and its receptors expression levels following Ang II treatment. Representative blots of (A) APN in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and (B) AdipoR1/2 in vascular smooth muscle cells following Ang II treatment. Data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n=3). *P<0.05, #P<0.05 vs. Con. APN, adiponectin; Ang II, angiotensin II; AdipoR, adiponectin receptor.

Figure 4.. APN inhibits vascular smooth muscle cell migration and p38 phosphorylation stimulated by Ang II. Representative image of (A) migrated cells stained with hematoxylin and eosin, as assessed by the migration assay and its quantification. (B) Representative blots of the p-p38 and t-p38 and quantification of its protein levels. Scale bar, 100 µm. Data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n=3). *P<0.05 vs. Con, #P<0.05 vs. Ang II. APN, adiponectin; Ang II, angiotensin II; p, phosphorylated; t, total.

Figure 5.. AdipoRon attenuates Ang II-induced vascular injury. (A) Immunofluorescence analysis of p-p38 and quantification of its protein expression levels, in Sham, Ang II and Ang II+ AdipoRon-treated mice (scale bar, 100 µm). Representative images of (B) Sirius Red (scale bar, 200 µm) and (C) hematoxylin and eosin staining (scale bar, 50 µM) of aorta cross sections from sham, Ang II and Ang II+ AdipoRon-treated mice. Data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n=5). *P<0.05 vs. sham, #P<0.05 vs. Ang II. Ang II, angiotensin; p-p38, phosphorylated-p38.