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:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/20226 |
Date | January 2011 |
Creators | Sleiman, Lyne |
Contributors | Beanlands, Robert |
Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Thesis |
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