Figure 1: (A) Coronary artery sections from patients with cardiovascular disease were obtained post mortem. Paraffin sections were stained for the macrophage marker CD68 (FITC) and CD163 (PE). DAPI was added as nuclear stain. * indicates the vascular lumen. (B) Magnification of a CD68+CD163+ (yellow arrow in (A), top row) and CD68+CD163- macrophage (green arrow in (A), bottom row). White bars indicate 20 µm. (C) RNA was isolated from carotid atherosclerotic plaques immediately after carotid endatherectomy. Expression of CD163 and PF4 message was measured by real-time PCR and normalized to GAPDH.