High glucose decreases antioxidant activities in endothelial cells.

<p>Bovine aortic endothelial cells were grown in DMEM (5.6 mM glucose) with 10% serum until 80% confluent and then switched to 0.5% serum plus 5.6 mM or 25 mM glucose for 72 hours. Raffinose was used as an osmolarity control. Measurements were performed as described in Methods. High glucose causes a decrease in multiple antioxidant enzymes. A: G6PD activity. B: NADPH level. C: Glutathione reductase activity. D: Catalase activity. E: Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. *, p<0.05 compared with 5.6 mM and raffinose conditions. Data were normalized by protein concentration and expressed as mean ±S.E in all figures. n = 5. The n's in all figures reflect separate experiments not separate plates of cells.