2.1. Rat carotid artery injury model

According to our previous protocals for model of balloon-injury carotid artery of rat [2], the mix gas including Isoflurane (1.5–2.5%) and oxygen was used for anesthetizing rats. After introducing a 2F Fogarty arterial embolectomy balloon catheter through the external carotid artery in left, pre-filled saline in the catheter were injected with 0.02 mL to inflate the balloon, and then rotatably withdrawn through the common carotid artery from proximal to the distal end of the heart. The above procedures were repeated for 3 times to achieve the perfect balloon-injury carotid artery with the traits of utter endothelial denudation. 100 µL of saline, Ad-Null or Ad-shMeox1 was injected into the balloon-injury carotid arteries through the specific syringe (WISP SYR, Hamilton), respectively. Subsequently, in order to transduce expression adenoviral vector of the interest genes into the cells of balloon-injury carotid artery, filling saline, Ad-Null or Ad-shMeox1 were resided in these arteries for incubation of 20 min, respectively.