Fig. 5: Mitigation of palmitic acid-induced atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability by macrophage Dll4 deletion.

8-week-old male C57BL/9 background ApoE^-/- mice, (Dll4^flox/flox; Lyz2-Cre^+/-; ApoE^-/-) mice were fed with standard chow, high-fat diet (HFD) or HFD containing 5% palmitic acid for 20 weeks. A Displayed are exemplary images of aortic root plaques stained with oil red O (ORO). The scale bar indicates a length of 200 μm (n = 3 mice, data presented as mean ± SD, left to right: ***P = 0.0007, ***P = 0.0007, *P = 0.0363, *P = 0.0274, ***P = 0.0005, *P = 0.0290, ***P = 0.0005). B Depicted are representative images of aortic root plaques subjected to Masson’s trichrome staining. The scale bar denotes a length of 200μm (n = 3 mice, data presented as mean ± SD, left to right ***P < 0.001, ***P = 0.0008, ***P < 0.001, ***P = 0.0001). C Presented are selected images of aortic root plaques stained with Sirius Red. The scale bar signifies a length of 200μm (n = 3 mice, data presented as mean ± sd, left to right ***P < 0.001, *P = 0.0373, *** P = 0.0005, **P = 0.0078). D Shown are sample images of aortic root plaques that have undergone double immunofluorescent staining for CD68 and Dll4. The scale bar represents a length of 200μm (n = 3 mice, data presented as mean ± sd, left to right ***P = 0.0002, **P = 0.0038, ***P < 0.001, ***P = 0.0002). E Exhibited are representative images of aortic root plaques that have undergone double immunofluorescent staining for α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and notch intracellular ___domain 1 (NICD1). The scale bar equates to a length of 200μm (n = 3 mice, data presented as mean ± sd, left to right ***P < 0.001, *P = 0.0168, ***P < 0.001, *P = 0.0208). F Depiction of CellEvent Green Senescence staining of the aortic root. The scale bar represents 200μm. (n = 3 mice, data presented as mean ± sd, left to right ***P < 0.001, ***P = 0.0004, ***P < 0.001, **P = 0.0021). A–F: one-way ANOVA with the Tukey post hoc correction. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.