Establishment Of An Animal Model Of Atherosclerosis In ApoE^-/- Mice: Intergenerational High Fat-high Cholesterol Diet During Pregnancy And Male Offsprings Adulthood

As the living standards improved, high fat-high cholesterol diet during maternal pregnancy which has great influences in the fetal development has become common and can lead to offspring adulthood cardiovascular diseases. However the reports of such influences are few and the empirical study is still in the starting stage.Atherosclerosis, which is one of Cardiovascular diseases, is a serious threat to human health in the World. There are various animal models of Atherosclerosis which exist merits and demerits, so the search for the proper animal model to be capable and effective of developing atherosclerosis which is similar to those found in man has become great significance.Apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE-/-) mice were selected on account of the above-mentioned background. These mice were fed with intergenerational high fat-high cholesterol dietduring pregnancy and male offsprings adulthood. The purpose of this study was to establish an innovative, stable and efficient modeling method of Atherosclerosis, investigate the influences of intergenerational high fat-high cholesterol diet during pregnancy to the development of offsprings adulthood Atherosclerosis and provide basic data and reference for the clinical researches of Atherosclerosis.The pregnant mice were assigned randomly to two groups:high fat-high cholesterol diet(21% fat,0.21% cholesterol) group(G group) and control group(P group). The male adult offsprings of G group were fed a high fat-high cholesterol diet(G-G group) (15% fat,1.25% cholesterol,0.5% cholic acid) or a control diet(G-P group). The male adult offsprings of P group were also fed a high fat-high cholesterol diet(P-G group) or a control diet(P-P group). Six mice, five weeks age, were included in each group, all the animals which had free access to feed and water raised in the SPF environment. G-G group, G-P group and P-G group were confirmed the model groups, P-P was the control group.The evaluation indexes of Atherosclerosis:the formation rate of Atherosclerosis, body weight changes, lipid level(TC, TG, HDL and LDL), the score of Atherosclerosis, Image Pro Plus 6.0 analysis of abdominal aorta, HE morphology and pathology characteristics of abdominal aorta.The male offsprings were sacrificed two months later, HE staining of abdominal aorta showed the formation rate of Atherosclerosis of the model groups were respective 66.67%(G-G),33.33%(G-P) and 33.33%(P-G) by microscopic examination. The results showed the animal model of Atherosclerosis successfully founded. All the indexes indicated the most serious pathological changes of Atherosclerosis happened in G-G group.The results suggest that intergenerational high fat-high cholesterol diet during pregnancy increases the risk of offsprings adulthood Atherosclerosis.The stdudy proves the method, intergenerational high fat-high cholesterol diet during pregnancy and male offsprings adulthood, is innovative which shortened the modeling time. The animal model successfully has replicated atherosclerosis which is similar to man and has the value of popularized and application. This study has shown that high fat-high cholesterol diet during pregnancy has important effect on offsrings adulthood atherosclerosis.