Fig. 1.

Age-related structural, histopathological, and gene expression changes in abdominal aortic tissue. Expression of vascular smooth muscle cell genes were decreased in abdominal aorta from older compared to young mice (A–C), while vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 gene expression was increased (E). Expression of inflammatory marker genes were increased in old compared to young aortic tissue (E–H) as were the expression of senescent cell markers (I, J). Supporting histology images (right side) show visual evidence of increased aortic diameter, decreased elastin content (VVG), and immunohistochemical evidence of increased senescent cell populations in aortic wall and surrounding tissues with aging. Elastin positivity measured from VVG staining was lower in older mice (K). Boxplots show the 25th and 75th percentiles (box), median (line), and whiskers defined by largest and smallest values within 1.5 times the interquartile range with individual points representing values beyond this range from N = 4 mice per age group. * denotes significant (P < 0.05) different from young.