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Updated: Aug 27, 2025
Quantification of Atherosclerosis in Mice
Published on: June 12, 2019
An insertion mutation in the Apoe gene associated with spontaneous hyperlipidemia in mice
Hitoshi Hatakeyama1, Ichiro Yoshioka1, Takeshi Ohsawa1
1Laboratory of Comparative Cellular Biology, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Musashino-City, Japan.
Introduction:
Spontaneously hyperlipidemic (SHL) mice, a mouse strain derived from an inbred strain of Japanese wild (original)-type mice (KOR; Mus musculus molossinus), show high plasma cholesterol concentrations with disruption of the apolipoprotein E (Apoe) gene. However, the details of the Apoe gene of SHL mice have yet to be described.
Material And Methods:
The DNA sequence of the Apoe gene of SHL mice was compared to that of control KOR mice in genomic DNA and cDNA analyses.
Results:
In the DNA analysis, a 4700-bp fragment was found to be inserted into exon 4 of the Apoe gene of SHL mice. The insertion contained two 365-bp repeats at each terminal and was flanked by a 6-bp target duplication at each side. The inserted fragment produced a frameshift of an early stop codon, resulting in a protein product that consisted of 87 amino acids in SHL mice compared to 311 amino acids in control KOR mice.
Conclusions:
These findings provide useful information about the molecular basis of SHL mice and related lipid disorders.
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