Figure 2.

Pathologic analysis of the heart. A: Grossly, hearts of hypertensive (HTN) Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (WHHL) rabbits were larger in size and heavier with a thickened ventricular wall than those of normotensive WHHL rabbits. On the surface of the heart of HTN-WHHL rabbits, a whitish area (chronic myocardial infarction), indicated by a red arrow, can be seen. B: Histologic features of the heart. Specimens were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE), and chronic myocardial infarction can be seen in the left ventricle and interventricular septa of HTN-WHHL rabbits (top right panel). Myocardial infarction lesions were characterized by marked fibrosis in which cardiomyocyte eosinophilic degeneration, hemorrhage, angiogenesis, and inflammatory cell infiltration were contained. Occlusive atherosclerotic lesions within myocardium are included (red arrowheads). Boxed areas are shown at higher magnification below. C and D: Masson trichrome (MT) staining revealed that nonmyocardial infarction (C) area and myocardial infarction (D) was associated with marked fibrosis, stained in blue. The specimens of papillary myocardium and the left ventricle were stained with MT (C, top and middle rows), and fibrosis was calculated by measuring the MT staining area (C, bottom row). Four coronary arteries/arterioles show prominent occlusive features (black arrowheads). Data are expressed as means ± SEM. n = 7 normotensive WHHL rabbits; n = 8 HTN-WHHL rabbits. ^∗∗P < 0.01, ^∗∗∗P < 0.001 versus normotensive WHHL rabbits. Scale bars = 100 μm.