PTEN overexpression attenuates serum induced HcASMC proliferation (A). HcASMC transfected with a plasmid carrying WT-PTEN or a control vector carrying GFP alone were incubated either in basal medium or growth medium in the presence of BrdU.
<p>PTEN knock down enhances serum induced HcASMC proliferation (B). Cells were transfected with siRNA targeting PTEN or a scrambled control. Proliferation is expressed as mean OD450 ± SD as determined by anti-BrdU ELISA (<sup>#</sup><i>P</i><0.001, *<i>P</i><0.001; n = 4). HcASMC were transfected as following: mock transfected (without plasmid, but with transfection reagent); transfected with a plasmid coding for GFP (pGFP); transfected with a plasmid coding for PTEN (pPTEN); transfected with a non-targeting (scrambled) siRNA (Control siRNA); transfected with a targeting siRNA against PTEN (PTEN siRNA).</p
