Figure 6.

Blood transfusion improves cerebral vascular endothelium in sickle cell mice. (A) Average area of VCAM-1 coverage per μm² in AA mice compared to SS. (B) Microvascular VCAM-1 expression in RFU/mm² in AA mice compared to SS. (C) Average area of P-selectin coverage per μm² (p < 0.0001). (D) Microvascular P-selectin expression (RFU/mm²). (E) Leukocyte adherence in AA and SS mice pre- and post-transfusion. AA: n = 3–5; SS: n = 5-7. Error bars are SEM. NS, Not significant; **p ≤ 0.01; ****p ≤ 0.0001. Mean comparisons done using Welch's corrected t-test. For VCAM-1 analysis, AA = 73 brain slices and SS = 147 brain slices, while for P-selectin analysis, AA = 162 brain slices and SS = 164 brain slices. For leukocyte rolling, AA = average of ~73 vessel segments pre-transfusion and 23 vessel segments post-transfusion; SS = average of ~90 vessel segments pre-transfusion and 54 vessel segments post-transfusion.