Fig. 3. Involvement of ROS in visfatin-stimulated ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression and monocyte adhesion in endothelial cells. (A) Cells were incubated in the absence or presence of 100 ng/ml visfatin for 24 h. (B-D) Cells were pre-incubated for 1 h in the absence or presence of the ROS scavenger N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC, 5 mM), followed by incubation in the absence or presence of visfatin (100 ng/ml) in the continued absence or presence of the inhibitor for a further 24 h. (A) The production of ROS, (B) adhesion of THP-1 monocytes, and the protein expression of (C) ICAM-1 and (D) VCAM-1 were measured. The results are the mean ± SEM for three separate experiments, each in triplicate. *P<0.05 compared with the untreated control; ^#P<0.05 compared with the visfatin alone group.