Figure 6.

Reduced evolution of established atherosclerotic lesions of the abdominal aorta by anti-CD40L antibody treatment. Photomicrographs of cross sections of formalin-fixed and longitudinally opened abdominal aorta (as exemplified in Fig. 5) were analyzed by computer-assisted image quantification. The maximal wall, medial, and intimal area as well as the maximal thickness of the inner aortic arch wall for each mouse was measured. Data are mean ± SD for mice treated with either irrelevant rat IgG (light gray bars), saline (dark gray bars), or anti-CD40L antibody (black bars). These groups are compared with mice fed 13 weeks with high-cholesterol diet (white bars; diet alone). Comparison between the respective study groups used Student's t test.