Figure 1.

External and internal diameter-intraluminal pressure (A, B) and wall : lumen-intraluminal pressure (C) in MRA from WKY rats and SHR untreated or treated with pioglitazone incubated in 0 Ca²⁺-KHS. (D) Representative transversal confocal projections of the vascular wall of MRA from WKY, SHR and pioglitazone-treated SHR. Vessels were pressure-fixed at 70 mmHg, stained with Hoechst 33342 and mounted intact on a slide. Projections were obtained from serial optical sections captured with a fluorescence confocal microscope (x40_oil immersion objective, zoomX2). Metamorph Image Analysis software was used to produce the transversal projection of the artery. Stress-strain relationship (E) and incremental distensibility-intraluminal pressure curves (F) in MRA from WKY, SHR and pioglitazone-treated SHR rats. *P < 0.05 versus WKY rats by two-way anova and Bonferroni post-test. n= 8–9 animals. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM.