Abstract
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of large and medium-sized arteries. Apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE-/-) mice are used as experimental models to study human atherosclerosis. ApoE-/- mice are constitutively hyperlipidemic and develop intima plaques that resemble human plaques. Various issues including experimental design for lesion analysis, dietary conditions, isolation of the aorta, staining methods, morphometry, group size, age, the location within the arterial tree, and statistical analyses are important parameters that need to be addressed to obtain robust data. Here, we provide detailed methods to quantify aorta atherosclerosis.
Keywords: Atherosclerosis, Lesion analysis, Plaque, Media, Inflammation
Materials and Reagents
Equipment
Software
Procedure
B1. En-face staining of whole aorta (Zhao et al., 2014; Hu et al., 2015)
B2. Staining of aorta cross sections (Hu et al., 2015; Grabner et al., 2009)
C1. Morphometry of en-face stained aorta (Hu et al., 2015; Daugherty and Rateri, 2015; Schmitt et al., 2014)
C2. Morphometry of Oil Red O-and hematoxylin-stained aorta cross sections (Hu et al., 2015; Grabner et al., 2009)
Notes
Recipes
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the German Research Council (HA 1083/15-4; to A. J. R. H.; MO 3052/1-1 to S. M.; and YI 133/2-1 to C. Y.) and the European Research Council (AdG 249929 to C.W.).
References
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