Impaired Vitamin D Signaling in Endothelial Cell Leads to an Enhanced Leukocyte-Endothelium Interplay: Implications for Atherosclerosis Development
Fig 5
VDR ablation affects atheroma composition in apoE-/- mice.
Tissue sections of aortic arch (A, B) and aortic root (D, E) from apoE-/- and apoE-/-VDR-/- mice were stained with anti-Mac-3 to quantify plaque macrophage content. (C) Staining intensity and % of Mac-3 positive cells in the aortic arch were graded semiquantitatively and histological scores were obtained from every sample, as explained in Materials and Methods. (F) Quantification of Mac-3 staining in the aortic root is shown as percentage of stained area relative to the area occupied by atheroma. The photomicrographs (20x magnification) show representative images of aortic arch and aortic root sections. Differences between groups were evaluated by the Student t test. Data presented are mean ± SEM of 10 mice/group. *p<0.05, *#p<0.001 vs. apoE-/- mice.