Figure 1.
Effect of splenectomy and cell transfer on atherosclerotic lesions in apoE° mice. Morphometric analysis of lesion size (cross-section area at the aortic root occupied by lesion, ×103μm2, mean ± SEM). Data are from a representative experiment, and additional data summarizing all experiments are displayed in Table 1. (a) Splenectomy (Sx) increases lesion formation. Lesion size 12 weeks after Sx was significantly increased (P < 0.05, n = 6 per group) when compared with sham-operated apoE° mice. (b) Transfer (Trf) of B cells but not T cells from atherosclerotic apoE° mice reduces lesion formation in sham-operated apoE° mice. Lesions in the latter (n = 6) were significantly larger than those in B cell–transferred mice (P < 0.05, n = 7) but not different from those in T cell–transferred ones (n = 5). (c) Spleen cell transfer rescues apoE° mice from the proatherogenic effect of splenectomy. Average lesion sizes are shown for sham-operated (n = 8) and Sx (n = 7) apoE° mice, and for Sx apoE° mice who received spleen cell transfer from young apoE° mice (yng E°, n = 4 recipients), wild-type C57BL/6J mice (E+, n = 4), or atherosclerotic apoE° mice (ascl E°, n = 6) or purified spleen T cells (E° T, n = 4 recipients) or B cells (E° B, n = 4) from atherosclerotic apoE° mice. *Significantly different from sham, P < 0.05; ‡significantly different from Sx, P < 0.05. Op, operation.