Figure 5. Chemerin promotes vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression via the activation of ChemR23 in RRMECs. A: The expression of VEGF detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) under different glucose conditions (5.5, 20, and 30 mM). B,C: RT-qPCR detected VEGF expression with/without chemerin stimulation (10 nM for 24 h) or ChemR23 knockdown under low- (5.5 mM) and high-glucose (30 mM) glucose conditions. D: VEGF expression detected by ELISA with/without chemerin stimulation (10 nM for 24 h) or ChemR23 knockdown under low- (5.5 mM) and high-glucose (30 mM) conditions. Data were shown as mean ± standard deviation (SD) of six replicates. *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001. Abbreviations: NC, RRMECs transfected with empty vector; sh, RRMECs transfected with shRNA targeting ChemR23; ch, with chemerin stimulation (10 nM for 24 h); ch/sh, RRMECs transfected with shRNA targeting ChemR23 and chemerin stimulation (10 nM for 24 h).