Fig. 4.

Light imaging and protease-sensing molecular optical imaging to reflect the pro-atherosclerotic and anti-atherosclerotic effects of a high cholesterol diet and atorvastatin treatment, respectively. Eight-week-old ApoE knock-out mice were put on various diets: 1) a normal chow diet (left two panels), 2) a Western diet (center two panels), and 3) a Western diet with atorvastatin for 14 weeks (right two panels). The cathepsin B (CatB) NIRF imaging shows that the CatB-related signal is stronger in the mouse on a high cholesterol diet than in the mouse on a normal diet. In the animal on a Western diet with atorvastatin, the CatB-related signal is as low as that in the animal on a normal diet. Note that plaques that appear similar in the color photograph (of the animal on a Western diet) have different signal intensities in the CatB image (arrows and arrowheads). Adapted from Kim et al.⁸⁸ with permission from the Korean Neurological Association. NIRF: near-infrared fluorescent.