Fig. 7

Effects of both pharmacological blockade or downregulation of TXNIP on vascular endothelial injury induced by ceramide. Caspase-1 activity was detected by caspase-1 activity assay kit (A). Hoechst33342/PI double staining (B, D) and Flow cytometry (C, E) were used to evaluate cell death. The cell LDH release was detected by LDH kit (F). The levels of IL-1β (G) and IL-18 (H) in the supernatants were analysed by ELISA. The permeability of endothelial cells was evaluated by FITC-dextran assay (I). Values were reported as the mean ± standard deviation in (A–E) (n = 3) and (F-I) (n = 5). ^*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001 vs control group. ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 and ^###P < 0.001 vs ceramide treatment group. Images were captured from random fields of view at a magnification of × 100. Scale bar = 200 μM