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. 2013 Jul 15;34(8):1025–1035. doi: 10.1038/aps.2013.75

Figure 6.

Figure 6

High cholesterol (HC) diets increase the expression of TLR2 in macrophages and blockade of TLR2 decreases the HC-induced expression of CHOP and apoptosis in atherosclerotic lesions. (A) Movat's staining revealed plaque morphology in the brachiocephalic arteries of ApoE−/−Tlr2+/+ and ApoE−/−Tlr2−/− mice. The scale bars represent 200 μm. TLR2 deficiency significantly reduced the mean lesion areas (B) and the sizes of the necrotic cores (C) (n=8 mice/group). (D) Double immunofluorescence revealed the infiltration of TLR2-expressing macrophages in the lesions in the brachiocephalic arteries of ApoE−/− mice aged 12 to 24 weeks that were placed on atherogenic diets from 6 weeks of age. The scale bars represent 20 μm. At the indicated ages, the ApoE−/−Tlr2−/− mice displayed significantly reduced CHOP (E), Bcl-2 (F), and cleaved caspase-3 (G) expression in the aortas. The data are shown as the mean±SEM (n=4–6 mice/group). bP<0.05 vs the ApoE−/− mice at the same age. eP<0.05 vs the ApoE−/− mice aged 12 weeks on the chow diet.