Fig. 1

Schematic illustration of the experimental animal group. The rabbit abdominal aorta was balloon injured and/or partially constricted with a cylinder-shaped cannula by the surgical suture according to the grouping. Four weeks later, the upstream and downstream vessels were harvested and subjected to hematoxylin-eosin and immunohistochemistry staining. Group I (BU group) = the group of balloon injury the aorta just upstream the separated artery and put a surgical suture without ligation as control; Group II (BU + C group) = the group of balloon injury the aorta just upstream the separated artery and constrict the separated aorta; Group III (BD group) = the group of balloon injury the aorta just downstream the separated artery and put a surgical suture without ligation as control; Group IV (BD + C group) = the group of balloon injury the aorta just downstream the separated artery and constrict the separated aorta; C group = only constrict the aorta group. U = upstream, D = downstream