Figure 2.
Gavage of Western diet-fed Apoe−/− mice with live bacteria reduces plasma lipids and attenuates atherosclerosis
(A) Diagram of the animal study design. Eight-weeks-old animals were fed a Western diet (WD) and randomly divided into six groups: mice in the C57BL/6J and Apoe−/− control group were gavaged with an equivalent volume of vehicle (PBS), the other 4 group were respectively gavaged with live B. cellulosilyticus, F. longum, R. intestinalis and the consortium of the three bacteria, at a daily dose of 1 × 109 CFU in PBS. When the mice were 25 weeks old, gavage was terminated and the mice were sacrificed.
(B–F) Comparison of plasma glucose and lipid profiles (6–7 samples per group).
(G) Representative photomicrographs of oil red O staining and quantitative analysis of atherosclerotic plaque area in the aortas (6–8 samples per group).
(H) Representative photomicrographs of oil red O staining and quantitative analysis of area percentage of atherosclerotic lesion in the aortic sinus (4–8 samples per group). The black bar represents 500 μm.
(I) Representative photomicrographs of hematoxylin and eosin staining and quantitative analysis of atherosclerotic lesion size in the aortic sinus (4–8 samples per group). The black bar represents 500 μm.
(J) Representative photomicrographs of Masson staining and quantitative analysis of area percentage of collagen in the aortic sinus (4–8 samples per group). The black bar represents 500 μm. TG, triglycerides; LDLC, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HDLC, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; CHOL, total cholesterol. Two-tailed Student’s t test or Mann-Whitney U-test was used for comparison between two groups. Data are shown as mean ± standard error of the mean.