Defensin stimulates the binding of LDL to HUVECs.

(A) HUVECs were incubated with the indicated concentrations of¹²⁵I-LDL for 4 hours at 4°C in the presence (+) or absence (−) of 10 μmol/L defensin, and the cell-associated radioactivity was measured. Specific binding was defined as the difference between cell-associated radioactivity in the presence and the absence of 100-fold molar excess unlabeled LDL. (B) HUVECs were incubated with ¹²⁵I-LDL (50 nmol/L) in the presence of the indicated concentrations of defensin under the experimental conditions described in panel A, and the specific binding was determined. The mean ± SEM of 3 experiments is shown.