Fig. 4

Analysis of ring elements of the whole left anterior descending coronary artery system. Wall thickness as a function of outer diameter. a Control and exercised males and b control and exercised females. Wall thickness positively correlated with diameter in all four groups. Significance levels of paired Tukey’s comparisons are shown, ^* p < 0.05 between sedentary and trained. Note increased wall thickness in trained male animals, while in females, a slight but significant wall thickness reduction could be observed. Female vessels had significantly thinner walls than males in the 100- to 300-μm range in the sedentary groups and in the whole range of the trained groups (not shown on the figure). (Two-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey’s test. a In the 200–500-μm range, dF = 1 and 6; F = 1090.1, p < 0.001. Exercise effect is dependent on vessel diameter (interaction, p < 0.001). b In the 300–350-μm range, dF = 1 and 5, F = 59.5, p < 0.001. Exercise effect is dependent on vessel diameter (interaction, p < 0.001))