Figure 1.

BP and atherosclerotic lesion size in NNee and nnee mice, either gonadectomized and implanted with a control pellet (Gdx) or surgically intact (I). I₁, current data; I₂, cumulative data. The lower number in each bar is sample size (n). The upper number in each bar is mean BP (mmHg) or lesion size (×10³ μm²), with SEM represented as a vertical line. (a) The BP measurements for male mice (10 Gdx NNee and 14 Gdx nnee; 35 I₂ NNee and 19 I₂ nnee) and female mice (12 Gdx NNee and 15 Gdx nnee; 22 I₂ NNee and 18 I₂ nnee; see Results for number of I₁ male and female mice) were combined as described in Methods. Removal of endogenous sex hormones by gonadectomy results in a significant reduction in BP in nnee mice (*P < 0.05 versus I₂, Student’s t test with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons). (b) Removal of endogenous sex hormones by gonadectomy results in a significant decrease in atherosclerotic lesion size in nnee mice (*P < 0.05 versus I₂, Student t test with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons).