Extended Data Fig. 5: NICIs in human cardiovascular tissues.

a,b, Representative images and quantification of NF200⁺ and TH⁺ axons in the coronary artery (CA) adventitia of healthy control donors vs atherosclerotic CA of cardiac transplant recipients with coronary artery disease (CAD) (paraffin sections, n = 5 healthy CA from organ donors, 10 CA (NF200) or 6 CA (TH) with plaque). Representative images and quantification of NF200⁺ and TH⁺ axons in non-atherosclerotic CAs versus early atherosclerotic CA adventitia from cardiac transplant recipients (frozen sections, n = 6 CA (NF200) or 4 CA (TH) nonCAD without plaque; 7 CA (NF200) or 5 CA (TH) CAD with plaque). c, Detection and enumeration of NF200⁺ and TH⁺ nerves in the abdominal aorta adventitia of healthy control donors, non-atherosclerotic and atherosclerotic asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) aorta (paraffin sections); n = 4 healthy abdominal aorta, 5 AAA no plaque, 16 AAA with plaque. d, Aortic noradrenaline levels in healthy vs and atherosclerotic AAA aorta; n = 5 healthy abdominal aorta, 8 AAA with plaque. e, Detection and quantification of NF200⁺ and TH⁺ axons in AAA with TLOs versus without TLOs (frozen sections); n = 5 AAA no TLO, 6 AAA with TLO. f, H&E-stained nerve-TLCs (N-TLCs) in healthy versus atherosclerotic CAs; n = 5 healthy CA from organ donors, 10 CA with plaque. g, CD45⁺ N-TLCs in adventitial nerves in healthy versus atherosclerotic AAA aorta; n = 7 healthy control aorta, 13 AAA with plaque. h, CD45⁺ leukocyte infiltration in adventitial nerves in healthy versus atherosclerotic AAA aorta. n = 4 healthy control aorta, 10 AAA with plaque. For a,b,e, scale bars, 25 µm; for c,f-h, scale bars, 100 µm. Data are means ± s.e.m. n represents biologically independent samples. Two-sided unpaired Student´s t-test (a,b,d,e); one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test (c); two-sided Mann-Whitney U-test (f-h). Patient details are reported in supplementary Tables 7 and 8

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