140 H. Williams et al. Figure 2 N-cadherin cleavage during apoptosis is mediated by MMPs. (A) Representative western blots (n ¼ 6) for N-cadherin protein in human VSMCs 4 h after the addition of Fas-L and 1 mM BB-94 or DMSO (vehicle control). (B) Representative western blots (n ¼ 3) N-cadherin protein in mouse wild-type VSMCs 4 h after the addition of Fas-L with or without 1 mM BB-94 or DMSO vehicle control. (C ) Representative western blots (n ¼ 3) for N-cadherin protein in mouse wild-type or MMP-3, -7, -9, or -12 knockout VSMCs 4 h after the addition of Fas-L. (D) Representative western blots (n ¼ 3) for N-cadherin protein in mouse MMP-7 knockout VSMCs 4 h after the addition of Fas-L with or without 1 mM BB-94 or DMSO vehicle control. Bar charts (A, B, and C) show densitometric analysis of western blots for 35 kDa C-terminal fragment of N-cadherin, data are shown as percent of control, and * and $ indicate a signiﬁcant difference (P , 0.05) from control and Fas-L þ DMSO, respectively. b-Tubulin is shown as loading control. (E) Cleaved caspase-3 activity expressed as LAU in mouse wild-type or MMP-3, -7, -9, or -12 knockout (KO) VSMCs 8 h after the addition of Fas-L. * indicates a signiﬁcant difference (P , 0.05) from wild-type control, n ¼ 6.