Fig. 6
From: Immune biomarkers link air pollution exposure to blood pressure in adolescents
Characterization of endothelial damage from plasma of participants exposed to a spectrum of ambient PM2.5 levels. To characterize endothelial cell dysfunction under plasmatic stress, we starved the cells for 24 h (1% serum) and exposed them with 25% of plasma of 10 participants for 24 h in EGM2 medium. First, we evaluated microtube formation (a, d) and eNOS (b) and ICAM-1 (c) by qRT-PCR on HAEC (n = 4) from 50-year-old donors. Next, we evaluated if there was any association between PM2.5 concentration (e), IL-18 (f), or IL1-β (g) plasma levels from these 10 participants with angiogenesis dysfunction in HAEC. To determine if the effects showed previously with HAEC are specific, we evaluated microtube formation on cMVEC under plasma exposure (h, i). To see if aging influenced endothelial cell phenotype under plasma exposure, we evaluate tube formation on HAEC of donors of 30-year-old donors (n = 4) (j). Values are presented as means ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001