Moderate Autophagy Inhibits Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Senescence to Stabilize Progressed Atherosclerotic Plaque via the mTORC1/ULK1/ATG13 Signal Pathway

Figure 2

Autophagy activation induced by rapamycin influences the feature of plaque composition in ApoE^−/− mice. (a) Immunohistochemistry staining of aortic tissue; (b) the expression of α-SMC in plaque by immunohistochemistry staining; (c) the expression of CD68 in plaque by immunohistochemistry staining; (d) the distribution of lipid in plaque by Oil red O staining; (e) the distribution of collagen in plaque by Sirius red staining; (f) quantitative analysis of plaque stability which was calculated as the value of (α-SMC area + collagen area)/(macrophage area + lipid area), ( per group; versus HFD group, ^# versus low RAPA group).

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