Figure 4.

AAA model in B cell‐deficient muMT mice. AAA mouse models were induced with a periaortic CaCl₂ treatment. A Upper, Representative images of abdominal aortas before (Pre) and 6 weeks after CaCl₂ treatment (Ca) in wild‐type (WT) and B cell–deficient (muMT) mice. White scale bar 2 mm. Lower, Quantitative analysis of the maximal diameters of abdominal aortas. Observation numbers are shown in parentheses at the bottom of the box‐and‐whisker plot. B, Upper, Protein expression levels were examined on immunoblots for the indicated proteins and with gelatin zymography for MMP9. Representative image shows aortic samples acquired before (Pre) and 7 days after CaCl₂ treatment (Ca) from WT and muMT mice. Sham samples were treated with vehicle only. Lower, White and gray columns indicate WT and muMT mice, respectively. Observation numbers in each experimental group are shown in parentheses at the bottom of the box‐and‐whisker plots. Values indicate fold expression levels relative to expression in WT Pre samples. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. AAA indicates abdominal aortic aneurysm; MMP9, matrix metalloproteinase; WT, wild type.