FIGURE 1.

Expression levels of GDF11 and ACTA2 were significantly decreased in thoracic aortic tissues of TAD patients. (A) Representative morphology of aortic tissues. (B‐D) Representative H&E, Masson and EVG staining for the aortas in patients with TAD and control group. Scale bar = 200 μm. (E) Serum levels of TNF‐α and IL‐6. (F) Protein expression of TNF‐α, IL‐6, MMP‐2, MMP‐3 and MMP‐9 in TAD thoracic aortic tissues. (G) ELISA result of the serum GDF11 levels. (H) Protein blots of GDF11 and ACTA2 in thoracic aortic tissues. (I) Representative fluorescence microscopy images for GDF11 (Red), ACTA2 (Green), and DAPI (Blue) in the thoracic aortic tissues. Scale bar, 50 μm. (J) Quantification analysis of fluorescence intensity of GDF11 (Red), ACTA2 (Green) and co‐expression of GDF11 and ACTA2 (Yellow) from immunofluorescence. (K) Linear regression analysis of the expression of GDF11 and ACTA2. Data are presented as Mean ± SD (n = 6‐8). *P < .05 vs control group, **P < .01 vs control group