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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Heart Valve Dis. 2012 Jul;21(4):513–520.

Figure 2.

Figure 2

A) Bulk modulus and AFM median modulus of PDMS gels show close agreement Data shown as mean ± SE; n = 3(AFM) or 4(bulk). (B) Modulus distributions of AV leaflet AFM scans from WT, Notch1, and ApoE animals. Drawn vertical lines represent median modulus values, which are aggregated and plotted in (C). N = number of animals and n = number of scanned regions on sections of tissue used for analysis. AV leaflets from 10 month old Notch1, 17 month old WT, and 20 month old ApoE animals were significantly stiffer (* = p<0.05) versus 2 month old WT animals. The AV leaflets from the 10 month old Notch1 animal were significantly stiffer than all other groups (+ = p<0.01). (D) Histological images of section adjacent to those subjected to AFM analysis. Arrowheads indicate regions of collagen (yellow); arrows indicate regions of elastin (purple/black) present in older animal sections. Line in 17mo WT added to show demarcation between the two leaflets. Black = nuclei; Purple = elastin; Blue = ground substance; Yellow = collagen; Red = Fibrous regions. Scale bar = 50 μm.