Journal
JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICAL ENGINEERING-TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME
Volume 140, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
ASME
DOI: 10.1115/1.4039175
Keywords
elastin; atherosclerosis; compliance; vascular mechanics
Categories
Funding
- NIH [R01HL105314, R01HL115560, P30DK052574]
- American Diabetes Association [7-13-JF-16]
- Washington University Nutrition and Obesity Research Center [P30DK056341]
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Increased arterial stiffness is associated with atherosclerosis in humans, but there have been limited animal studies investigating the relationship between these factors. We bred elastin wildtype (Eln(+/+)) and heterozygous (Eln(+/-)) mice to apolipoprotein E wildtype (Apoe(+/+)) and knockout (Apoe(-/-)) mice and fed them normal diet (ND) or Western diet (WD) for 12 weeks. Eln(+/-) mice have increased arterial stiffness. Apoe(-/-) mice develop atherosclerosis on ND that is accelerated by WD. It has been reported that Apoe(-/-) mice have increased arterial stiffness and that the increased stiffness may play a role in atherosclerotic plaque progression. We found that Eln(+/+) Apoe(-/-) arterial stiffness is similar to Eln(+/+) Apoe(+/+) mice at physiologic pressures, suggesting that changes in stiffness do not play a role in atherosclerotic plaque progression in Apoe(-/-) mice. We found that Eln(+/-) Apoe(-/-) mice have increased structural arterial stiffness compared to Eln(+/+) Apoe(-/-) mice, but they only have increased amounts of ascending aortic plaque on ND, not WD. The results suggest a change in atherosclerosis progression but not end stage disease in Eln(+/-) Apoe(-/-) mice due to increased arterial stiffness. Possible contributing factors include increased blood pressure and changes in circulating levels of interleukin-6 (IL6) and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) that are also associated with Eln(+/-) genotype.
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