Figure 5.

Selective blockage of the IL (interleukin)-6 trans-signaling pathway using sgp130 in the elastase + anti-TGF (transforming growth factor)-β model increases collagen deposition and prevents aortic rupture. Mice were treated with sgp130 or Hum-Fc (n=12 mice/group) starting on the day of the application of elastase and the infusion anti-TGF-β. A, Survival curves of mice after the application of elastase and the infusion anti-TGF-β. *P<0.05 Hum-Fc vs sgp130; Gehan-Breslow-Wilcoxon test. B, Representative macroscopic pictures of abdominal aortic aneurysms from mice treated with elastase and anti-TGF-β and isotope or anti-IL-6R, at day 16. Note that the aneurysm from the Hum-Fc treated mouse was ruptured. C, Analysis of the aortic diameter (µm) based on the perimeter obtained from aortic cross sections. D, Quantification and representative images of collagen content of the aortic wall analyzed using Sirius Red staining under polarized light. *P<0.05 Hum-Fc vs sgp130; Mann-Whitney test. E and F, Quantification and representative images of lymphocyte antigen 6 complex, locus G (Ly6G) (D) and cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3) (E) immunofluorescent stainings on aortic cross-section. All data for the generation of the graphs shown in Figure 5 were generated in one independent experiment.