Fig. (3) Effects of DHA pretreatment on apoptosis of VSMCs characterised by flow cytometry. (a) VSMCs were pretreated with DHA for 24 hrs and exposed to stable or intermittent high glucose for 72 hrs as mentioned in the text. The apoptosis rate of VSMCs was computed by FACS assay using PI staining. Results from 10,000 events were analyzed in each sample. (b) Quantitative analysis of apoptosis. Data were expressed as mean ± SD from three experiments. The percentages of apoptotic cells in DHA-SHG and DHA-IHG were increased significantly. * P < 0.001 versus SHG, # P < 0.001 versus IHG.