Chronic NO Restriction in Hypertensive Rats Increases Abdominal but Not Thoracic Aortic Intrinsic Stiffness via an Augmentation in Profibrotic Materials

Figure 4

Comparison of fibronectin (a) and collagen (b) accumulation in the thoracic (TA) and abdominal (AA) aorta between SHRLN n=8, SHR n=6, and WKY n=6. The data show that AA levels of fibrosis markers were specifically higher in AA from SHRLN in agreement with stiffness data in vivo. Whilst collagen was also higher in AA in the SHR, these data show that fibronectin (Fn) content of the SHR AA remained similar to those of TA unlike the findings in the SHRLN. : p<0.05 AA versus TA in the same group of rats. Statistics between groups are shown in Table 3.

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