Bone Marrow-Specific Knock-In of a Non-Activatable Ikkα Kinase Mutant Influences Haematopoiesis but Not Atherosclerosis in Apoe-Deficient Mice
Figure 2
Knock-in of IkkαAA/AA in haematopoietic cells does not influence advanced atherosclerosis in Apoe−/− mice.
Apoe−/− mice were transplanted with IkkαAA/AAApoe−/− or Ikkα+/+Apoe−/− BM and received a high-cholesterol diet for 13 weeks before analysis. (A,B) Body weight (A) and lipid analysis in blood serum (B) (n = 18). (C) Cholesterol levels after HPLC-based size fractionation of pooled blood serum samples. (D,E) Atherosclerotic lesion sizes in the aorta (D) and aortic root (E) (n = 16–19). Representative pictures of Oil-Red-O+ lipid depositions in aorta and aortic root are shown. Scale bar = 500 µm. (F) Classification of aortic root lesions according to their severity. Shown is the plaque distribution as percentage of the total number of lesions examined (n = 18–27). (A,B,D,E) Graphs represent the mean ± SEM; 2-tailed t-test, ***P<0.001.