FIGURE 4.
Force mapping via atomic force microscopy and opening angle measurements of healthy and T/HS aortic rings. (A) Areas (scan size: 40 μm) of the tunica media were scanned in triplicates per aortic section (scale bar = 100 μm). (B) Representative scans of Young’s modulus mapping from each group were set to the same color scale (0–1.92 MPa) for visual comparison. (C) The mean of the average Young’s modulus of each sample scan was calculated and plotted on a bar graph. (D) Representative images of cut-open aortic rings from each group. (E) Average opening angles measured in degrees. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. By one-way ANOVA, †† p < 0.01 and † p < 0.05 for Healthy vs. LR.
