Monocyte adhesion to ECs was performed as previously described15. HCAECs seeded in 6-well plates were pretreated with vehicle or TA (10 µM) for 12 h. Recombinant human TNFα at a final concentration of 10 ng/ ml was added for 6 h. Then 0.5 ml (at a density of 5–7 × 106/ml) THP-1 cells were added and incubated for 30 min. Then the cells were gentle washed with Meso Endo Cell Growth Media for 3 times to remove non-adherent THP-1 cells. The pictures were taken by Zeiss Axiovert 40 C microscope (magnification: 10 × ) with a Canon A640 digital camera (Canon USA Inc) with. The numbers of each image adherent cells were counted.