Fig. 4

Expression of the proliferative marker Ki67 and proapoptotic active caspase-3 in dermal microvascular endothelial cells from healthy controls (H-MVECs) and patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) (SSc-MVECs). a, b Western blotting of total protein extracts from H-MVECs and SSc-MVECs at basal condition and treated with recombinant human soluble α-Klotho (sKl) protein for 24 and 48 hours assayed with anti-Ki67 (a) and anti-caspase 3 (b) antibodies. Representative immunoblots are shown. The active fragment of casapase-3 is identified at the expected molecular weight of 17 kDa. The densitometric analysis of the bands normalized to α-tubulin is reported in the histograms. Data are mean ± SD of optical density (OD) in arbitrary units. Student’s t test was used for statistical analysis; *p < 0.05 versus basal H-MVECs, °p < 0.05 versus basal SSc-MVECs. Results are representative of three independent experiments performed with each one of the five H-MVEC and five SSc-MVEC lines