Figure 1.

FAM3D (family with sequence similarity 3, member D) deficiency attenuates the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in mice. A and B, Representative Western blot analysis and quantification of FAM3D expression in infrarenal abdominal aortas of C57BL/6 mice treated with elastase (A) or CaPO₄ (B) for 3, 7, or 14 days. Saline was applied as a control. n=6. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s test for multiple comparisons, *P<0.05. C and D, Representative photographs (C) and quantification of maximal diameters (D) of the infrarenal abdominal aortas in saline- or elastase-induced 11- to 12-week-old wild-type (WT) and FAM3D^−/− male mice. Two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test for multiple comparisons, *P<0.05. E, Representative Verhoeff-Van Gieson staining and statistical analysis of elastin degradation in the infrarenal abdominal aortas in saline- or elastase-induced 11- to 12-week-old WT and FAM3D^−/− male mice (n=6 for each group). Scale bar, 20 μm. Kruskal-Wallis test, *P<0.05.