Fig. 4

Inhibitory effect of EPA on the thinning of medial smooth muscle cell layer in lesions. a–c Inhibitory effect of EPA on the thinning of medial smooth muscle cell layer. Medial smooth muscle cells in IA lesions from rats treated with vehicle or EPA (100 or 1000 mg/kg/day) for 12 days were visualized by immunostaining for smooth muscle α-actin (SMA), a marker for smooth muscle cells. The representative images from immunohistochemistry for SMA (red), nuclear staining by DAPI (blue) and merged images are shown (a). The magnified images corresponding to the squares are shown on a right (a). Bar; 50 μm. The thickness of the thinnest portion in the media of IA lesions (b) and the relative thickness over that of the distal normal part (c) were calculated (vehicle, n = 8, 100 mg/kg/day, n = 10, 1000 mg/kg/day, n = 9). Data represents box-and-whisker plots. Statistical analysis was done by a Kruskal-Wallis test. *p < 0.05