Fig. 1

Gross, MRI and histopathological investigations of different experimental animal spleen. a Gross pathology of spleens of different experimental ApoE^−/− mice: Normal saline-treated Apoe^−/− mice show spleen with normal size and the Ang II-treated animals with AAAs show enlarged spleen (Right panel). b On T1wI the Ang II-treated animals with AAAs show enlarged spleens (Right panel) compared with the saline-treated ApoE^−/− mice (Left panel). c Larger volume in Ang II-treated animals with AAAs. Values are means ± SDs. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. d Higher spleen-to-body weight ratio in Ang II-treated animals with AAAs. Values are means ± SDs. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. e Left panel: Normal splenic follicles and periarteriolar lymphoid sheath (PALS) in saline-treated ApoE^−/− mice. Right panel: Hypertrophy of splenic follicles are increasingly seen in the medullary regions, large numbers of proliferative immature lymphocytes (arrow) in the lymphatic follicles and increase in the size of periarteriolar lymphoid sheath with resident T lymphocytes, in Ang II-treated animals with AAAs. f Immunostaining result reveals the large numbers of proliferative immature lymphocytes (arrow) in the lymphatic follicles in Ang II-treated animals with AAAs