Figure 1.

Role of caveolae and effects of endothelium denudation on SSD. (A) Representative continuous recordings of vessel diameters of isolated coronary arteries from WT (left panel) and Cav-1^−/− (right panel) mouse vessels were pre-contracted with ET-1 followed by shear stress-induced dilation. At the end of the experiments, vessels were exposed to 100 mmol/L KCl and then to zero Ca²⁺ Kreb’ solution. (B) Endothelium-denuded WT (left panel) and Cav-1^−/− (right panel) mouse coronary arteries failed to dilate in response to acetylcholine (ACh 1 μmol/L) while the effects of sodium nitroprusside (SNP 100 μmol/L) remained intact. After endothelium removal, shear stress-induced dilation was significantly attenuated in both WT and Cav-1^−/− vessels. (C) Group data showing SSD in WT (n = 22) and Cav-1^−/− mice (n = 18) and the effects of endothelium denudation. WT-endo and Cav-1^−/−-endo are vessels without endothelium, n = 8 for both, ^#P < 0.05, ⁺P < 0.01, and *P < 0.001 vs. vessels with intact endothelium.