FIGURE 3.

PCPE2 deficiency decreases collagen content in aorta and liver. A, representative aortic root sections following Masson's trichrome staining. Sections were obtained from LDLr^−/− and LDLr^−/−, PCPE2^−/− mice fed an atherogenic diet for 12 weeks. Quantification of the absolute connective tissue area and the percent of total collagen content per aortic area is shown adjacent to representative sections from each genotype. Data represent the mean ± S.D. of n = 10 male mice/group. Different letters indicate statistical significance at p < 0.05. B, representative aortic root sections following picrosirius red staining for LDLr^−/− in a, c, and e and for LDLr^−/−, PCPE2^−/− in b, d, and f. Bright field ×5 images are shown in a and b. c–f, polarized images at ×5 are shown in c and d and in the blue boxed regions at ×20 in e and f. C, relative mRNA abundance for PCPE2 and PCPE1 in artery (left) compared with the liver (right) for LDLr^−/− mice (gray bar) and LDLr^−/−, PCPE2^−/− (black bar) mice fed an atherogenic diet. D, representative sections of liver from an atherogenic diet-fed LDLr^−/− and LDLr^−/−, PCPE2 mouse stained with picrosirius red and viewed using polarized light to show the birefringence of the collagen fibers.