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Updated: May 20, 2026
Quantification of Atherosclerosis in Mice
Published on: June 12, 2019
Wall properties of the apolipoprotein E-deficient mouse aorta
Aristotelis Agianniotis1, Nikos Stergiopulos
1Laboratory of Hemodynamics and Cardiovascular Technology, Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, BM 5128 (Bâtiment BM), Station 17, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. aristotelis.agianniotis@epfl.ch
Objectives:
We quantified the dysfunction of the aortic wall, determined structural and elastic properties, and provided histological data of the thoracic aortas of apolipoprotein E (apoE)-deficient mice which are used as model of atherosclerosis.
Methods:
Six young 10-12 week-old (apoE)-deficient mice of both sexes were studied and six age-matched C57BL/6J wild-type mice were used as control group. We performed extension-inflation mechanical tests at three different axial stretches (λ(z) = 1.6, 1.8, and 2.0), under maximally contracted or totally relaxed state of the vascular smooth muscle cells. Classical histology was performed to the arterial segments.
Results:
Control aortas were generally more distensible than the (apoE)-deficient mouse aortas under both relaxed and contracted smooth muscle. Also, aortas from (apoE)-deficient mice were stiffer (higher incremental elastic modulus) than control aortas. Control aortas exhibited a higher active diameter response compared to (apoE)-deficient mouse aortas, despite the fact that vascular smooth muscle cell density was increased by approximately 15% in the (apoE)-deficient mouse aortas.
Conclusion:
We found substantial changes in the structural and elastic properties of the wall, in the active diameter response and in the histology of (apoE)-deficient mouse aortas compared to the control group. Our data can be used in the development of constituent-based models of the arterial wall and in studying the changes in arterial wall properties in presence of disease, such as atherosclerosis.
