FIGURE 1.

Intimal injury promoted neointimal hyperplasia and increased vascular stiffness. (A) Ultrasound imaging was used to measure the change in arterial diameter (%). At 2 weeks after intimal injury surgery, the change in arterial diameter was significantly decreased. (B) The Piuma nanoindenter was used to determine vascular stiffness, and the stiffness of the carotid artery increased from an average of 13.45 kPa to an average of 20.98 kPa after intimal injury surgery. (C) Immunofluorescence was used to determine the type of cells in areas of neointimal hyperplasia, and most of the hyperplasia involved VSMCs. Green indicates SMA staining (VSMCs), red indicates vWF staining (ECs), and nuclear staining is shown in blue by DAPI (bar = 50 μm). (D) Elastin-van Gieson, hematoxylin-eosin (HE), and picrosirius red staining revealed that the area of neointimal hyperplasia was significantly thickened and collagen accumulated 2 weeks after intimal injury compared with those of the contralateral common carotid artery (control) (bar = 50 μm). The values are shown as the mean ± SD, *P < 0.05 vs. control (n = 4 biological replicates).