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Figure 1 Representative microcomputed tomography images of the proximal segments of the left anterior descending artery from animals fed a normal diet (N) (left panel) or high cholesterol diet without (HC) (middle panel) or with endothelin-type A-receptor antagonism (HC + ET-A) (right panel) for 12 weeks. The spatial distribution pattern of vasa vasorum in the N group is characterized by a clear structure into first order vasa vasorum, running longitudinally and second order vasa vasorum, running circumferentially. In the HC group, a plexus of newly formed vasa vasorum and in the HC + ET-A group a restitution to a normal status are apparent. Illustration voxel size 21 µm.