Figure 3.

In vivo molecular MRI of extracellular-matrix of the aortic wall. Time-of-flight angiograms showing a suprarenal abdominal aorta including the right renal-artery of a male ApoE-/- mouse after 4 weeks of Ang-II infusion (A1). An extensive aortic aneurysm was developed after 4 weeks of Ang-II infusion including a strong remodeling of the extracellular matrix by an expression of elastic-fibers in the area of former elastin dissection which was observed in vivo by MRI after the administration of the elastin-specific-probe (A3, A4) and ex vivo by histological analysis (A5, A6). The abdominal aorta of a male ApoE-/- mouse treated with 01BSUR show no pathological changes of the aortic wall in vivo on the time-of-flight angiogram (B1), native MRI (B2) and T1-weighted-sequences using the elastin-specific-probe (B2, B3) or on corresponding ex vivo histology (B5, B6). Scale bars represent 200 µm. TOF: Time-of-flight, EvG: Elastica van Gieson staining, Elastic fibers are stained blue-black; HE: Hematoxylin-Eosin-staining; MRA: magnetic-resonance-angiography; aA: suprarenal abdominal-aorta; rRA: right renal-artery.