Extended Data Fig. 9: Atherosclerosis, cardiac imaging, blood pressure and heart rate variability.
From: Neuroimmune cardiovascular interfaces control atherosclerosis
a, In vivo ultrasound images followed by 3D reconstructions of aorta and plaque volumes versus corresponding in-situ images in aortic arch and abdominal aorta of WT and Apoe−/− mice (n = young: 4 WT, 8 Apoe−/−; adult: 12 WT, 17 Apoe−/−; aged: 21 WT, 24 Apoe−/−); video 13. b-e, Imaging of an abdominal plaque using ultrasound-imaging and histology in aged Apoe−/− mice. b, B-mode echo images of the abdominal plaque (P) (yellow line). c, 3D reconstruction of B-mode echo images (plaque in yellow). d, Histological detection of OR/H stained lipid-rich plaque area (red). e, Pearson correlation of abdominal aorta plaque volume measured by ultrasound versus plaque size (intima/media ratio) measured by histology. n = 9 aged Apoe−/− mice for ultrasound imaging before sacrifice and for histology in the same mice postmortem. Abbreviations: RRA, right renal artery; Abd. aorta, abdominal aorta. f, Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac functional and structural parameters in aged WT and Apoe−/− mice (n = 20 WT and 20 Apoe−/−). g, Analysis of the heart rate variability (HRV) across life span in young and aged Apoe−/− vs WT mice. (n = young: 4 WT, 4 Apoe−/−; aged: 3 WT, 4 Apoe−/−). h, Radiotelemetric analysis of systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements in young and aged Apoe−/− vs WT mice across lifespan (n = young: 4 WT, 4 Apoe−/−; aged: 3 WT, 4 Apoe−/−). Blood pressure and HRV were continuously measured for 3 days, during night and day. Average values of nocturnal and diurnal blood pressure for the 3 days of measurements are shown. Measurements of cardiovascular parameters during ageing are reported in supplementary Tables 9 and 10. For a,b,f, scale bars, 1 cm; for d, scale bar, 50 µm. For f, centre lines are medians, box limits are upper and lower quartiles and whiskers are 1.5x interquartile range. For g-h, data are means ± s.e.m. n represents biologically independent animals. Two-sided unpaired Student´s t-test (f); mixed-model ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test (g,h)
