Figure 2

NO did not reduce gap junctional Ca²⁺signal propagation in HUVEC. A depicts the fluorescence image (Fura2, excitation 380 nm), the stimulated cell (red), adjacent cells (green), and secondary adjacent cells (blue). All adjacent cells together are counted as neighbouring cells. B. The Ca²⁺ concentration (ratio) increased (0 s) after mechanical stimulation of the red marked HUVEC and the Ca²⁺_i signal propagated to most neighbouring cells within 6 s. The time course of the Ca²⁺_i increase in the marked cells (A) is shown in C. Ca²⁺_i increased in the stimulated cell (red) and the signal propagated with a time delay of up to 3 s to adjacent (green) and up to 10 s to secondary adjacent (blue) cells. In the HUVEC monolayer, incubation with NO (15 min, 2 μM SNAP) did not reduce the number of responding (D) but increased the time delay (E) of the Ca²⁺_i transfer to neighbouring endothelial cells. n = 39-66, w = 6, C = 4; *: p < 0.01, NG.