Fig. 5.

Upper panel: Picrosirius red-stained cross-sections of thoracic aorta (left panel), carotid (center panel) and femoral (right panel) arteries of all groups: young (Y), adult (A) and old (O) viewed under light microscope to show collagen fibers. 400 x magnification, Bar= 200µm. Middle panel: Values of % of collagen deposition area on transverse sections of thoracic aorta (left panel), carotid (center panel) and femoral (right panel) arteries. Bottom panel: Pearson correlation between % of collagen deposition area and estimated pulse wave velocity (PWV, m/s) in picrosirius-stained aorta (left panel, r=0.817, p=0.0004), carotid (center panel, r=0.862, p=0.0002) and femoral (right panel, r=0.885, p<0.0001) arteries among all rats. Significance: One way ANOVA test with Tukey as post hoc: * vs young, + vs adult, p<0.001