Quantification of atherogenesis <i>en face</i> (A) and in the aortic arch (B) in the mouse model of TGF-ß1 overexpressing macrophages after 8 weeks (8 w), 16 weeks (16 w) and 24 weeks (24 w) on the WTD, respectively.

<p><b>A, left panel</b> Box and whisker diagrams (median, interquartile range, minimum, and maximum; n.s. = not significant) of aortic plaque area (%) of SRA-TGF-ß1 ApoE^−/− (grey) and ApoE^−/− mice (white). <b>A, right panel</b> Representative Sudan-stained aortas <i>en face</i> of SRA-TGF-ß1 ApoE^−/− and ApoE^−/− mice. <b>B, right panel</b> Hearts of SRA-TGF-ß1 ApoE^−/− and and ApoE^−/− mice were resected, and measurement of plaque size in longitudinal sections of the aortic arch stained with trichrome was performed as follows: a 2-mm segment of the lesser curvature of the aortic arch was defined proximally by a perpendicular axis dropped from the right side of the innominate artery origin (dashed line) and the aortic-arch wall area subtended by this 2-mm stretch of intima (green line) was calculated for each section of all mice by computerized image analysis. In addition, the aortic-arch intima thickness (red line) was determined on this same segment of the lesser curvature <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0040990#pone.0040990-Blobe1" target="_blank">[1]</a>. IA, innominate artery; LCCA, left common carotid artery; LSA, left subclavian artery. Note, that no statistically significant differences of lesion area could be detected between SRA-TGF-ß1 ApoE^−/− (black circles) and ApoE^−/− (white circles) mice (non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test, n.s. = not significant, <b>B, left panel).</b>