Fig. 2.

Increased endoplasmic reticulum (ER) whorls, fragmented mitochondria, and enlarged lysosomes in VSMCs derived from vulnerable plaques (PVSMC(V)) than in those derived from stable plaques (PVSMC(S)). (A) Bioinformatics analysis to identify differentially expressed genes between stable and vulnerable plaques. (B) Representative image of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) labeled with GFP-Sec61β in PVSMC(S) and PVSMC(V). (C) Quantitative analysis of the percentage of cells with ER whorls in the two groups (n = 30 cells in each group). (D) Representative image of mitochondria stained with deep red Mitotracker in PVSMC(S) and PVSMC(V). (E) Quantitative analysis of the aspect ratio in the two groups (n = 30 cells in each group). (F) Representative image of lysosomes stained with dextran in PVSMC(S) and PVSMC(V). (G) Quantitative analysis of the average number of lysosomes in the two groups (n = 30 cells each). **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001. Scale bar = 10 μm. P1, P11, P21, P5, P18, P28 refer to the corresponding patient plaque numbers. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)