Objective-Apolipoprotein (apo) E-deficient mice are hypercholesterolemic and develop atherosclerosis on low-fat chow diets; however, the genetic background strain has a large effect on atherosclerosis susceptibility. This study aimed to determine the genetic regions associated with strain effects on lesion area. Methods and Results-We performed a strain intercross between atherosclerosis sensitive DBA/2 and atherosclerosis resistant AKR apoE-deficient mice. Aortic root lesion area, total cholesterol, body weights, and complete blood counts were ascertained for 114 male and 95 female F 2 progeny. A high-density genome scan was performed using a mouse single nucleotide polymorphism chip yielding 1967 informative polymorphic markers. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) statistical analyses were performed. Novel loci associated with lesion or log lesion area were identified for the female and male F 2 cohorts. The atherosclerosis QTLs in female mice reside on chromosomes 15, 5, 3, and 13, and in male mice on chromosomes 17, 18, and 2. QTL were also identified for body weight, total cholesterol, and blood count parameters. Conclusions-Loci were identified for atherosclerosis susceptibility in a strain intercross study. The identity of the responsible genes at these loci remains to be determined.

The mouse has become the preferred species for genetic manipulation aimed at creating and studying models for human disease. Although mice are highly resistant to atherosclerosis, dietary induction and, more frequently, gene knockout and transgenic mice have been widely used to study factors that alter the susceptibility to atherosclerosis. Although there are several ways to assess atherosclerosis in mice, measurement of the aortic root lesion area is a commonly used, medium-throughput method that allows for histological examination of the lesions. Here, we provide the detailed methods for the quantitative analysis of mouse aortic root lesion area.

We performed a strain intercross between two apoE-deficient mouse strains with a large difference in lesion susceptibility and measured aortic root lesion area in 98 female F(2) progeny. Total RNA was prepared from bone marrow-derived macrophages, and RNA from the five mice with the smallest and largest lesions were used for microarray gene expression profiling. Remarkably, approximately 5% of the 12,288 expressed transcripts were differentially expressed in the atherosclerosis-susceptible and atherosclerosis-resistant bone marrow-derived macrophages (unadjusted p < 0.05), thus defining the transcriptome of macrophages associated with atherosclerosis susceptibility. Using more stringent criteria of twofold or greater change and p < 0.01, 116 and 70 transcripts were overexpressed in lesion-prone and lesion-resistant bone marrow-derived macrophages, respectively. Transcription factor binding site analysis identified two promoter elements that were found more often in the genes overexpressed in the large-lesion group, and one promoter element that was found more often in the small-lesion group. The combination of this expression profiling data with the genetic method of quantitative trait locus mapping should give powerful insights into the genes that affect atherosclerosis susceptibility in mice.