Increased Inflammation in Atherosclerotic Lesions of Diabetic Akita-LDLr^−/− Mice Compared to Nondiabetic LDLr^−/− Mice

Figure 3

Male 𝐴𝑘𝑖𝑡𝑎-𝐿𝐷𝐿𝑟^−/− mice have increased macrophages, T-lymphocytes, and collagen in subvalvular lesions compared to male 𝐿𝐷𝐿𝑟^−/− mice. Subvalvular lesions from 24-week-old mice were stained and quantified for monocytes/macrophages using MOMA-2 antibody (a), for collagen using Masson’s trichrome staining (b), or for T-lymphocytes using anti-CD3 (c). Representative monocytes/macrophages, collagen and T-lymphocytes stainings are shown in (a)–(c). Values are presented as individual mice and as mean ± SEM. Two-way ANOVA revealed interactions between diabetes and gender ((b)*** and (c)*), and significant effect of diabetes ((a)** and (b)***) and of gender ((b)*). Bonferroni post hoc test yielded *𝑃<0.05, **𝑃<0.01, ***𝑃<0.001. a: 𝑃<0.05; Mann-Whitney. Scale bar = 500 𝜇m in (a) and (b) and scale bar = 200 𝜇m in (c).

(a)

(b)

(c)