Morphological and Biomechanical Differences in the Elastase and AngII apoE^−/− Rodent Models of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Figure 6

Nonlinear optical microscopy provides a label-free approach for examination of AAA tissue morphology and protein content. SHG (green), TPEF (red), and merged SHG/TPEF nonlinear optical images of representative aortic tissue sections from healthy and AAA regions in low- and high-concentration-elastase rats (a), and AngII apoE^−/− mice (b). Scale bars: 100μm. Black arrows point to adventitial collagen; white arrows point to degraded elastin bands; and asterisks indicate agarose gel in lumen.

(a)

(b)