Fig. 1

The height of CPECs in contact with foam cells decreases. Representative H&E-stained LV CPs from a 0 and b 16 weeks of a cholesterol diet (dHC) and c–e 32-week-old WHHL rabbits. a, b Show CPECs without contacting foam cells, whereas c shows both CPECs that are with (lower 2/3) and without (upper 1/3) FCs. An inset in c is shown in d with FC marked with (x). The distance between dashed lines (arrows) shown in a, b, d is measured as the CPEC height. In e, an example image of clustered FCs with their characteristics of fine pink punctuations in the cytoplasm and small eccentric nuclei is shown. All rabbits were 32 weeks of age. Scale bars in a, b, d, e are 20 μm, and a bar in c is 50 μm. f The mean heights from the measurement are shown (mean ± standard deviation). Bar graphs at the left of the dashed line denote Japanese White rabbits, whereas bars at the right are WHHL rabbits. For CPEC height without foam cells, 0 chol (n = 4) dHC (n = 6) and WHHL (n = 7) are used. For CPEC with foam cells, 0 chol did not have any foam cell mass (not applicable, n.a.), dHC (n = 2, due to foam cell mass detection in 2 out of 6 rabbits) and WHHL (n = 7). ***p < 0.001