Cellular Inhibitor of Apoptosis 2 (cIAP2) belongs to the IAP family, a group of endogenous proteins that inhibit apoptosis. However, the physiological role of cIAP2 remains poorly defined. Knock-out (KO) and wild type (WT) mice were used to examine the effect of cIAP2 protein on the progression of atherosclerosis in apoE -/- mice. Following the high-fat diet period of 4 and 12 wks, tissues were harvested and analysis focused on the aortic root, the aortic arch, the descending aorta, and the blood. Ex vivo results show a significant decrease in aortic arch lesion area in KO vs. WT in both study groups. Results also show a decrease in aortic root lesion size in KO vs. WT in both study groups. These results support that cIAP2 is an important survival factor for lesion-associated macrophages, since loss of cIAP2 expression in this mouse model reduced atherosclerotic lesion development.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OOU./en#10393/20226 |
Date | 22 September 2011 |
Creators | Sleiman, Lyne |
Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds