Background
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that contributes to over 50% of deaths in western societies. Adult men are at a unique risk because estrogen provides a well-documented atheroprotective effect for premenopausal women. Therefore, this study focuses on development of lesions in adult male mice. Atherosclerosis is characterized by the formation of plaques, lipid-filled deposits on arterial walls. Late stage plaques are susceptible to rupture, leading to life-threatening events like stroke and myocardial infarction. Plaques are primarily composed of foam cells, or macrophages laden with cholesterol. The formation of foam cells is mediated by various receptors to engage in endocytosis. One key enzyme in this process is Protein Kinase C epsilon (PKCε), which catalyzes the addition of membrane lipids to a forming phagosome. In vitro, PKCε deficient macrophages are unable to efficiently phagocytose and thus PKCε has a demonstrated potential to be atheroprotective. To study this potential in vivo, C57Bl/6 mice underwent Cre-Lox recombination to create a mεKO strain, which lacks PKCε in myeloid cells. We predict that the mεKO mice, which are PKCε deficient, will accumulate more plaque burden than WT mice.

Methods
At 8 weeks, mice were injected with the PCSK-AAV8 virus to induce hypercholesterolemia by inhibiting LDL receptors in the liver. This state was further reinforced by a high fat (“Western”) diet. Serum was collected during this time to confirm hypercholesterolemia. 16 weeks post injection, the aortic arch and descending thoracic aortas of WT and mεKO mice were collected. These samples were pinned flat, stained with Oil Red O, a fat soluble dye, to mark areas of plaque development, and photographed. Using ImageJ, sample area was standardized across all aortas and a color threshold was determined as a double-blinded method to calculate percent lesion coverage or “plaque burden.”

Results
WT mice (n = 8) had an average plaque burden of 1.393% (+/- 1.141%) while mεKO mice (n=7) had a significantly higher average plaque burden of 5.820% (+/- 2.411%). The p-value of a Student’s t-test is <0.001 (***).

Conclusions
The results confirm our hypothesis and demonstrate that PKCε may play a role in preventing lesion development in atherosclerosis. Additionally, current research suggests that plaque composition may be as important as plaque area in determining prognosis; mεKO mice developed visibility more opaque plaques than WT mice, and analyzing differences in composition may be productive.

Deletion of myeloid protein kinase C epsilon exacerbates atherosclerosis

 Cardiology

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Deletion of myeloid protein kinase C epsilon exacerbates atherosclerosis

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