Figure 3.

Nucleolar stress induction accelerated AAA formation in vivo. (A) Overall incidences of AAA in CaCl₂/phosphate (Ca/P)-treated abdominal aortas in wild type C57BL/6 mice without and with CX-5461 (CX) co-treatment. (B) Gross morphology of Ca/P-induced AAAs (arrowheads) without and with CX-5461 co-treatment. PBS was used as sham control. (C) Dot blots showing the maximal diameter of the abdominal aorta in different groups (n = 8 - 9). (D) Histopathology of Ca/P-induced AAAs without and with CX-5461 co-treatment. The boxes within H&E-stained images indicated the areas shown on the right, which were Verhoeff-Van Gieson-stained high power images. (E) Proportions of AAAs with different severity (graded 1 to 4 with increasing severity) in Ca/P-treated aortas without and with CX-5461 co-treatment. (F) Elastin Scores of Ca/P-induced AAAs without and with CX-5461 co-treatment (n = 8 - 9). Data were expressed as mean ± S.D. Data in C and F were analyzed with one-way ANOVA and unpaired t-test respectively. Data in A were analyzed using χ² test. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01.