2.6. Morphology Analysis of Intimal Hyperplasia

We used our previously established vascular morphometry testing method [6]. After chloral hydrate anesthesia at the fifteenth day after operation, the rats were bled to death and the abdominal aortas were collected. The vessels used for Western blot detection are placed directly into the cryopreservation tube and stored at -80°C. The vessels used for Masson staining and immunohistochemistry were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde at 4°C for 24h, dehydrated with ethanol gradient, vertically embedded with paraffin, and stored at 4°C.

Each segment of the vessel was cut intermittently for eight slices and stained with Masson stain. The results were observed under light microscopy with magnification of 100-400 times. MIAS medical image analysis system was used to take photos, and the inner area of the outer elastic membrane, inner elastic membrane, and lumen was measured by Image-Pro Plus 6.0 image analysis software. Based on the aforementioned results, the formula for calculation is as follows: