Shear stress-induced atherosclerotic plaque composition in ApoE −/− mice is modulated by connexin37

Connexin40 controls endothelial activation by dampening NFκB activation

“…Shear stress-modifying casts were placed around the right common carotid artery and the mice were fed a high-cholesterol diet for 6 weeks. As shown previously for Apoe -/- mice [ 14 , 20 ], Cx40 fl/fl Apoe -/- controls showed intimal thickening in regions exposed to LLSS or OSS (Figure 5A ). As expected, flow-induced atherosclerotic remodeling was significantly increased in Tie2Cre Tg Cx40 fl/fl Apoe -/- carotids (Figure 5B and 5C ) with 0.97±0.01 of the vessel surface being occluded in the LLSS region of Tie2Cre Tg Cx40 fl/fl Apoe -/- carotids vs .…”

Pannexin1 links lymphatic function to lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis

“…3D and H ) in the lesions of the two groups of mice. To investigate the effects of Panx1 deletion on plaque phenotype in more detail, we used shear stress-modifying casts known to induce atherosclerotic plaques with a stable (induced by oscillatory shear stress (OSS)) and vulnerable (induced by low laminar shear stress (LLSS)) phenotype in common carotid arteries of Apoe −/− mice 19 , 20 . As expected, the CD68 + area was increased in plaques induced by LLSS as compared to lesions induced by OSS in Apoe −/− mice, whereas an inverted pattern was observed for SMC content of these plaques (Figure S5A–D ).…”

“…A conical shear stress-modifying cast was used to induce defined changes in shear stress, as previously described 19 , 20 . In brief, 10 weeks-old male Panx1 −/− Apoe −/− and Apoe −/− mice were anesthetized with 5% isoflurane inhalation for induction, followed by 2% isoflurane for maintenance of anesthesia.…”

Influence of shear stress magnitude and direction on atherosclerotic plaque composition

“…Although two other studies have used micro-CT to examine the haemodynamics of the mouse carotid artery [30,31], neither study evaluated flow within the cuff model used herein. We recently reported preliminary data on the distribution of OSI in this model at six and nine weeks based on micro-CT imaging in vivo , but did not evaluate other shear metrics [10]. Thus, to the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to evaluate multiple WSS metrics of atherogenic flow within different segments of the mouse carotid artery instrumented with a flow-modifying cuff in vivo .…”