Research Article

Cathepsin K Deficiency Impaired Ischemia-Induced Neovascularization in Aged Mice

Figure 1

Aging resulted in impaired capillary formation and blood flow recovery in response to ischemia in the muscles of C57BL/6J mice. (a) Representative LSBFI result and quantitative data show the ratio of ischemia to nonischemia blood flow in young (8-week-old) and aged (96-week-old) CatK+/+ mice. (b) Representative images show the capillary density in nonischemic and ischemic thigh adductor muscles. (c) Quantitative analyses revealed that CatK−/− impaired the capillary density in the ischemic muscle. Data are (). vs. corresponding controls (days 4, 7, and 14) by two-way repeated-measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc tests (i) or one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc tests (ii).
(a)
(b)
(c)