FIG. 2.

Morphological changes as a result of H₂O₂ treatment in normal SMCs followed by a live‐cell imaging microscope. (A) Untreated cells appeared healthy, evenly spread, and well attached over a period of 24 h. Arrows indicate dividing cells at different time points and the cell number increases by 24 h. Selected cells are enlarged in figure insets. (B) Treatment of H₂O₂ severely affected cell growth and morphology. Arrows numbered 1, 3, and 4 indicate cells that undergo apoptosis and show typical characteristics, such as detachment of the membrane, cell shrinkage, and blebbing. The cell indicated with the 3rd arrow underwent secondary necrosis after apoptosis and formed a blister (black arrowhead). The cell indicated with the 2nd arrow initially shrunk and probably started apoptosis, but underwent secondary necrosis and formed a blister (white arowhead). Although there are only few examples indicated with the arrows, the images show more cells undergoing apoptosis within the same field. Apoptosis started to occur as early as 0.5h after treatment and took place at different times. There were no cell divisions over a period of 48h. Enlarged views of selected cells can be seen for each time point as indicated. (20× magnification, DIC microscopy, movie at 25 frames/second). Similar results were obtained for both control and aneurismal SMCs.