Morphological assessments and quantification of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression
| Vehicle | Sildenafil | Two-way ANOVA main effects p-value | |||||
| Sham-exposed | CS-exposed | Sham-exposed | CS-exposed | CS exposure | Sildenafil | Interaction | |
| Guinea-pigs n | 8 | 10 | 8 | 11 | |||
| Pulmonary artery wall thickness μm | 57.7±23.3 | 77.8±9.0* | 54.8±4.7 | 75.4±9.8* | ≤0.001 | 0.565 | 0.963 |
| Smooth muscle α-actin-positive arteries % | 25.1±5.5 | 40.3±13.1* | 26.4±4.6 | 39.8±7.1* | ≤0.001 | 0.877 | 0.760 |
| Arteries with double elastic lamina % | 1.3±2.5 | 4.1±6.6 | 0.7±2.0 | 2.8±1.2 | 0.101 | 0.512 | 0.833 |
| Vessels <50 μm per mm−2 | 23.5±4.2 | 19.0±5.6 | 27.3±5.0 | 25.4±5.7# | 0.077 | 0.006 | 0.476 |
| Interseptal distance μm | 69.1±12.8 | 78.0±11.8 | 64.7±7.6 | 71.3±7.9 | 0.028 | 0.114 | 0.749 |
| Relative eNOS expression eNOS/β-actin | 1.07±0.14 | 1.08±0.13 | 1.10±0.14 | 0.96±0.12 | 0.632 | 0.699 | 0.586 |
Data are presented as mean±sd, unless otherwise stated. CS: cigarette smoke. *: p<0.05 compared with sham-exposed group; #: p<0.01 compared with vehicle CS-exposed group.