Fig. 5.

Rimonabant attenuates atherosclerotic plaque development. Female Western-type diet-fed APOE∗3-Leiden.CETP mice were fed with or without supplementation of the cannabinoid type 1 receptor inverse agonist rimonabant for 20 weeks. Mice were sacrificed, and hearts were collected. A: Cross-sections of the aortic root area were stained with hematoxylin-phloxine-saffron, and pictures of representative cross-sections are shown. B: Atherosclerotic lesion area was determined and is expressed as a function of distance from the appearance of open aortic valves, from which (C) the mean atherosclerotic lesion area was calculated. D: The square root of the mean atherosclerotic lesion area from C was plotted against the total non-HDL-C exposure. E: Lesions were categorized according to lesion severity and expressed as a percentage of total lesions. G: The smooth muscle cell (brown staining), (H) macrophage (green staining), and (J) collagen (red staining) area were measured within type III lesions, and (F, I) pictures of representative cross-sections are shown. Data are presented as mean ± SEM and individual data points. ∗P < 0.05 and ∗∗P < 0.01.