Ba3840

All samples were repaired in a microwave and incubated in 0.3% hydrogen peroxide before using primary [vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), BA3840, Boster, China] and secondary antibodies (Zhongshan Golden Bridge Biotechnology Company, China). Positive reactions were visualized by incubating the slides with diaminobenzidine as a substrate in the cytomembrane. Images were photographed with SPOT V3.0II software and the average optical density was measured and analyzed by Image-Pro Plus 6.0.

Tissues were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 24 h and equilibrated in 20% sucrose for 24 h. For oil red O (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) staining, heart and liver were embedded in optical coherence tomography (OCT), frozen at an approximate temperature of −20°C, and sectioned at 7 μm with a freezing microtome (Leica, Switzerland). The quantitative analysis of atherosclerosis was represented as the percentage of en face lesion area ratio to the whole area of the full-length aorta, and the total area of the aortic root lesion by image J software. For H&E, sirius red, and immunohistochemical staining, the tissue samples from the aortic arch for all hamster samples after en face analysis were embedded in paraffin and sectioned at 3 μm with a Leica microtome, following a standard protocol referring to our pathology platform. Immunohistochemical staining was performed with anti-VCAM-1 and anti-α-SMA antibodies (BA3840 and A03744 rabbit polyclonal IgG respectively, Boster, USA).