Fig. 3
Defective autophagy in VSMCs increases passive arterial stiffness at high pressures. Aortic stiffness, Ep, for Atg7+/+ SM22α-Cre+ (+/+ , open symbols) and Atg7F/F SM22α-Cre+ (F/F, closed symbols) animals was determined at 80–120 (N) and 100–140 (H) mmHg in the presence of extracellular Ca2+ (a). Absolute change of Ep by removal of extracellular Ca2+ (b) at physiological (N) and high (H) pressures. Two-way ANOVA with pressure and genotype effect indicated and with Sidak’s multiple comparisons post-test. *p < 0.05 **p < 0.01 (n = 7)