S. NICOVANI , M.I. RUDOLPH
BIOCELL, Vol.26, No.1, pp. 15-24, 2002, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2002.26.015
Abstract We examined the presence of estrogen receptors (ER) in vascular mast cells and a possible genomic effect of estrogens on the expression of mast cell (MC) mediators such as chymase, TNFα, NOS and IL-10, which are known to affect the course of atherosclerosis. Immunocytochemical detection of mast cell tryptase and the co-localization of ERs in MCs from abdominal aortic vessels from 10 fertile woman, 10 postmenopausal women and 15 men was performed. The genomic expression of IL-10, TNFα, and NOS was analyzed by RT-PCR and chymase activity by spectrophotometry after 24 h incubation with 17-β… More >