Fig. 3
Effect of PAHs on ROS generation and VSMCs migration. a VSMCs were treated with control (DMSO), ANT, AQ, BaA, or BAQ at the indicated concentration and analyzed for ROS generation. Representative fluorescent images of VSMCs loaded with H2DCF-DA (green) with nuclei stained with DAPI (blue) are shown. b Effects of ambient PM on VSMC migration were measured using a wound healing assay. The images from the wound healing assay are representative of five independent experiments, taken at the time of scratching and 48 h after scratching. The black line represents the initial boundaries following the scratch at time 0 and the white dotted line represents the migrating cell front after 48 h. The wound healing area was measured using ImageJ software. c Boyden chamber assay showing the number of migrated cells. The images from the transwell assay are representative of five independent experiments, taken 12 h after seeding. d The cytotoxic effects of PAHs on VSMCs were evaluated using the MTT assay. Serum-starved VSMCs were treated with each form of PAHs for 24 h. All values are represented as mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001 versus control; #P < 0.05 and ##P < 0.01 oxy-PAHs versus PAHs; NS, no significance