Stiff Substrates Enhance Endothelial Oxidative Stress in Response to Protein Kinase C Activation

Figure 1

Subendothelial stiffness increased in the thoracic and abdominal aortae of Eln+/- mice. (a) Longitudinally dissected mouse aorta opened to expose the endothelial surface. (b, top) Unscraped aorta showing the intact endothelium via β-catenin (green), cell structure using actin (red) and nuclei (blue), and the subendothelial matrix using collagen IV (white). Artery is shown en face. (b, bottom) Scraped aorta showed that the endothelium was removed since no β-catenin (green) was observed. The subendothelial matrix (collagen IV, white) remained intact and contiguous both en face and in cross section (smaller images). Scale . (c) Subendothelial stiffness of aortae from WT and Eln+/- mice. Thoracic and abdominal aortic sections were indented by AFM using a silicon nitride cantilever with a 10 μm spherical tip to measure subendothelial stiffness ( and ^# by Student’s -test). Three aortae were tested for each condition.

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