Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 3 pp 4299—4316

Overexpression of long noncoding RNA ANRIL inhibits phenotypic switching of vascular smooth muscle cells to prevent atherosclerotic plaque development in vivo

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Figure 6. Adenovirus-mediated knockdown of lncRNA-ANRIL prevents the effects of metformin on VSMC phenotype switch in Apoe−/− mice. The animal experimental protocol was shown in Figure 5A. (A) The morphology of VSMC in atherosclerotic plaque was determined by immunofluorescence analysis of α-SMA. (B) The mRNA levels of the markers of VSMC phenotype switch, including calponin, smoothelin, osteopontin, collagen I, and collagen III in aortic tissue were measured by real-time PCR. N is 10-15 in each group. *P<0.05 vs. scramble shRNA alone. #P<0.05 vs. scramble shRNA plus metformin.