Fig. 5.  Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) messenger ribonucleic acid expression in rat myocardium after hypoxic late preconditioning with 16% oxygen. Representative reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction analysis experiments of a time course (normoxic control, 6 and 28 h poststimulus). Two major bands of VEGF messenger ribonucleic acid represent polymerase chain reaction analysis fragments amplified from VEGF¹⁸⁸and VEGF¹⁶⁴messenger ribonucleic acids. Summarized data presenting ratio of VEGF to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) are shown. All data are presented as mean ± SD unless otherwise specified. *P < 0.05 vs.  normoxic control.