Fig. 1.

Balloon injury induces neointima formation and upregulates TSPO expression in rat carotid arteries. Serial sections were obtained from carotid arteries 0, 7, 14, and 21 days after balloon injury in rats. a Immunofluorescence staining for TSPO (red) and α-SMA (green) in rat carotid arteries. The results shown are from a single experiment and are representative of 10 separate experiments. The relative fluorescence intensities of TSPO and α-SMA are shown. b TSPO protein expression in rat carotid arteries was analyzed by Western blotting (WB) (n = 8). c TSPO mRNA was detected by PCR (n = 6; *P < 0.05 vs. sham groups)