Propofol prevents AngII-induced apoptosis by regulating ACE2 and phosphorylated eNOS.

<p>(a) A representative Western blot of eNOS activation in AngII-pre-treated HUVECs among normal (Control), propofol-treated and with or without A779 and L-NAME addition after propofol treatment for 4 h. Following the process described in the Materials and Methods, equal amounts of total protein from each cell sample were subjected to Western blotting using specific antibodies against eNOS and phosphorylated eNOS. β-Tubulin was used to confirm equal protein loading. The results are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 3). ¶ p<0.05 compared to the Ctrl group; * p<0.05 compared to the Ang II group; # p<0.05 compared to the Propofol 100uM group. (b) Expression of phosphorylated eNOS in HUVECs in AngII-treated medium, with or without propofol-treatment. HUVECs transfected with siRNA-ACE2 and scramble-RNA were harvested 48h after transfection. Data are representative of n = 3 independent WB experiments; *P<0.01. (c) Expression of phosphorylated eNOS in HUVECs in AngII-treated medium, propofol-treated and with or without L-NAME addition after propofol treatment for 4 h. HUVECs transfected with an ACE2-overexpression plasmid were harvested 48h after transfection. Data are representative of n = 3 independent WB experiments; *P<0.01.