Journal: Cardiovascular Research

Article Title: Age-dependent remodelling of arterial chemoafferent innervation in hypertension

doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvaf207

Figure Lengend Snippet: Study overview. Carotid bodies from SHR and Wistar controls were analysed across different age groups. The common carotid artery bifurcation (unilateral) was serially sectioned at 20 µm in the sagittal plane, with sections mounted in sequence (roman numerals on a representative slide) to permit reconstruction of rostral–caudal directionality following image acquisition. Multiplex fluorescent labelling targeted key components: chemosensory (glomus) cells (TH—tyrosine hydroxylase), vasculature (TL—tomato lectin), and innervation (NF—160 kDa neurofilament). Imaging was performed using a high-throughput widefield fluorescence microscopy platform (Olympus VS200). Lucy–Richardson deconvolution was applied, and binary area segmentation was performed using an artificial neural network-based pixel classification in QuPath. Hypothesis testing was performed using generalized additive models (GAMMs) and generalized linear models (GLMs) to account for a multi-group, nested data structure.

Article Snippet: Prepared slides were imaged at the University of Auckland, Biomedical Imaging Research Unit, using an Olympus SLIDEVIEW VS200 ASW 4.1 imaging system equipped with a Hamamatsu ORCA-Flash4.0 V3 Digital CMOS camera.

Techniques: Sequencing, Multiplex Assay, Imaging, High Throughput Screening Assay, Fluorescence, Microscopy