Macrophages and smooth muscle cells in atherosclerotic plaques express MMP3 and NFκB.

<p>Sections (4 µm) of paraffin embedded tissue blocks of atherosclerotic plaques were subjected to double immunostaining of MMP3 and the macrophage marker CD68 (A and B), MMP3 and the smooth muscle cell marker SMA (C and D), p50 and CD68 (E and F), p50 and SMA (G and H), p65 and CD68 (I and J), p65 and SMA (K and M), using rabbit polyclonal NFκB p50 and MMP3 antibodies (Abcam), a rabbit monoclonal NFκB p65 antibody (Abcam), and mouse monoclonal CD68 and smooth muscle actin (SMA) antibodies (DAKO), respectively, and goat anti-rabbit or anti-mouse secondary antibodies (Thermo/LabVision). The double immunostaining was visualized with Liquid Permanent Red chromogen (Dako) and Vector Blue chromogen (Vector Labs). Pink colour indicates expression of MMP3 (A, B, C and D), p50 (E, F, G and H) or p65 (I, J, K and M). Blue colour indicates expression of CD68 (A, B, E, F, I and J) or SMA (C, D, G, H, K and M). Arrow indicates cell co-expressing MMP3 with CD68 (B) or SMA (D), p50 with CD68 (F) or SMA (H), and p65 with CD68 (J) or SMA (M). 200X magnification in A, C, E, G, I and K; 400X magnification in B, D, F, H, J and M.