Figure 4

Parallel plots as exploratory tools for the presentation of the multivariate distribution of the parameter families (absolute capillary length, volume and surface derived from stereology) of KO (red lines) and WT mice (blue lines) at the age of 40 (A), 60 (B) and 87 (C) weeks. Parallel plots display relationships between several metric variables (measured as a multivariate observation on the same individual) by connecting their one-dimensional (=univariate) scatter plots. The measurement scales of the variables are placed parallel to each other, and the values that belong to the same multivariate observation, i.e. individual, are linked by line segments across the univariate scatter plots. Since detection of relationships between variables is of primary interest, and to simplify the presentation, scale divisions or units are not provided, but only their orientation (by indicating their minimum and maximum).