[Figure 3].

Aging and exercise induced alterations in cerebral microcirculation. (a) Mean capillary RBC flux in young-adult sedentary mice. The data are from 226 and 218 capillaries in three young sedentary mice in the gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM), respectively. Comparison was made between young and aged sedentary group (shown in (b)) in each gray (layers II/III, IV in aged sedentary group) and white matter region. (b) Capillary RBC flux across cortical layers II/III and IV, and subcortical white matter in aged sedentary and exercise group. (c) Histograms of capillary RBC flux in the gray and white matter in each animal group. (d) The coefficient of variance (CV) of capillary RBC flux across cortical layers II/III and IV, and subcortical white matter in sedentary and exercise group. (e) Venular flow versus vessel diameter. Different symbols represent different animals. The red dashed and blue solid line is the best fit result of each linear regression for sedentary and exercise group, respectively. (f) Mean venular flow in ascending venules in (d) in sedentary and exercise group. The data in (b-d) are from 921, 486, and 112 capillaries in 7 mice in the sedentary group and 1046, 465, and 238 capillaries in 8 mice in the exercise group, in cortical layers II/III, IV, and the white matter, respectively. The data in (e) and (f) are from 14 and 7 ascending venules in 9 and 6 mice in the sedentary and exercise group, respectively. Statistical analysis was carried out using Two-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey’s in (a,b) and (d) and Student’s t-test in (f). *p<0.05; **p<0.01. Additional details on boxplots and animals excluded from the analyses are provided in the Supplementary document.