Fig. 1

Quercetin protects aortic endothelial cells from ox-LDL-induced cellular senescence. A Volcano diagram depicting the differential expression of genes in ox-LDL-induced HAECs with quercetin treatment. Red, upregulated genes; blue, down-regulated genes; grey, no significantly altered genes. Genes with adjusted p < 0.05 by false discovery rate (FDR) correction and fold change > 1.5 were regarded as differential expression. B Heatmap exhibiting the expression of the top 15 up- and down-regulated genes in ox-LDL-induced HAECs with or without quercetin administration. The color from blue to red indicates low to high gene expression. C Enrichment analysis of the differentially expressed genes on KEGG pathways. The top 15 significant pathways were exhibited. D, E Visualization of p53 and mTOR signaling pathways. F Heatmap displaying the differential expression of cellular senescence-related genes in ox-LDL-induced HAECs administrated with quercetin. G Comparison of SERPINE1 expression in ox-LDL-induced HAECs administrated with or without quercetin. H Protein–protein interactions of p53 and autophagy signaling pathways. I Representative SA-β-gal staining of HAECs treated with 50 μg/mL ox-LDL in combination with 0, 0.5, 1 and 3 μM quercetin (Que). Scale bar, 50 μm. J Quantification of SA-β-gal-positive HAECs. ****p < 0.0001