Endothelial Dysfunction in the Apolipoprotein E-deficient Mouse: insights into the influence of diet, gender and aging

Lipids in Health and Disease

Review

Silvana S Meyrelles¹  Elisardo C Vasquez²  Thiago MC Pereira³  Veronica A Peotta⁴ 

[1] Departament of Physiological Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Vitoria, ES, Brazil;Departament of Physiological Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Vitoria, ES, Brazil;Emescam School of Health Sciences, Vitoria, ES, Brazil;Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology (IFES), Vila Velha, ES, Brazil;The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA;

关键词: apoE;    hypercholesterolemia;    atherosclerosis;    endothelial dysfunction;    oxidative stress;    gender;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-511X-10-211

 received in 2011-10-22, accepted in 2011-11-14,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Since the early 1990s, several strains of genetically modified mice have been developed as models for experimental atherosclerosis. Among the available models, the apolipoprotein E-deficient (apoE-/-) mouse is of particular relevance because of its propensity to spontaneously develop hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerotic lesions that are similar to those found in humans, even when the mice are fed a chow diet. The main purpose of this review is to highlight the key achievements that have contributed to elucidating the mechanisms pertaining to vascular dysfunction in the apoE-/- mouse. First, we summarize lipoproteins and atherosclerosis phenotypes in the apoE-/- mouse, and then we briefly discuss controversial evidence relative to the influence of gender on the development of atherosclerosis in this murine model. Second, we discuss the main mechanisms underlying the endothelial dysfunction of conducting vessels and resistance vessels and examine how this vascular defect can be influenced by diet, aging and gender in the apoE-/- mouse.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Meyrelles et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.