Diet-induced occlusive coronary atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, cardiac dysfunction, and premature death in scavenger receptor class B type I-deficient …

S Zhang, MH Picard, E Vasile, Y Zhu, RL Raffai… - Circulation, 2005 - Am Heart Assoc
S Zhang, MH Picard, E Vasile, Y Zhu, RL Raffai, KH Weisgraber, M Krieger
Circulation, 2005Am Heart Assoc
Background—Normal chow (low fat)–fed mice deficient in both the HDL receptor SR-BI and
apolipoprotein E (SR-BI/apoE dKO) provide a distinctive model of coronary heart disease
(CHD). They exhibit early-onset hypercholesterolemia characterized by unesterified
cholesterol-rich abnormal lipoproteins (lamellar/vesicular and stacked discoidal particles),
occlusive coronary atherosclerosis, spontaneous myocardial infarction, cardiac dysfunction,
and premature death (≈ 6 weeks of age). Mice in which similar features of CHD could be …
Background— Normal chow (low fat)–fed mice deficient in both the HDL receptor SR-BI and apolipoprotein E (SR-BI/apoE dKO) provide a distinctive model of coronary heart disease (CHD). They exhibit early-onset hypercholesterolemia characterized by unesterified cholesterol-rich abnormal lipoproteins (lamellar/vesicular and stacked discoidal particles), occlusive coronary atherosclerosis, spontaneous myocardial infarction, cardiac dysfunction, and premature death (≈6 weeks of age). Mice in which similar features of CHD could be induced with a lipid-rich diet would represent a powerful tool to study CHD.
Methods and Results— To generate a diet-inducible model of CHD, we bred SR-BI-deficient (SR-BI KO) mice with hypomorphic apolipoprotein E mice (ApoeR61h/h) that express reduced levels of an apoE4-like murine apoE isoform and exhibit diet-induced hypercholesterolemia. When fed a normal chow diet, SR-BI KO/ApoeR61h/h mice did not exhibit early-onset atherosclerosis or CHD; the low expression level of the apoE4-like murine apoE was atheroprotective and cardioprotective. However, when fed an atherogenic diet rich in fat, cholesterol, and cholate, they rapidly developed hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, and CHD, a response strikingly similar to that of SR-BI/apoE dKO mice fed a chow diet, and they died 32±6 days (50% mortality) after initiation of the high-fat feeding.
Conclusions— The SR-BI KO/ApoeR61h/h mouse is a new model of diet-induced occlusive coronary atherosclerosis and CHD (myocardial infarction, cardiac dysfunction and premature death), allowing control of the age of onset, duration, severity, and possibly regression of disease. Thus, SR-BI KO/ApoeR61h/h mice have the potential to contribute to our understanding of CHD and its prevention and treatment.
Am Heart Assoc