FIG. 3.
Histological and IHC analysis in the mice aortas of the hypercholesterolemia model. (A) Note the larger amounts of collagen deposits in the atheromatous plaque of hPRDX4+/+/apoE−/− mice than those in the apoE−/− mice. (B) IHC showed that the number of α-SMA-positive SMCs was significantly larger in the atherosclerotic lesions of hPRDX4+/+/apoE−/− mice, especially in the thickened fibrous caps, than that in the apoE−/− mice. (C) The number of Mac-2-positive macrophages demonstrated no significant difference between these two groups of mice. (D) IHC showed that the percentage of CD3-positive infiltrating T-lymphocytes in the intimal lesions of hPRDX4+/+/apoE−/− mice (arrows) was significantly lower than that in the apoE−/− mice (arrow), especially in the atheromatous fibrous caps. *p<0.05, **p<0.001. Bar=100 μm, n=10. (To see this illustration in color the reader is referred to the web version of this article at www.liebertpub.com/ars.)