Figure 1.

Aortic wall thickening and pulse wave velocity in atherosclerotic mice is ameliorated by treatment with D-PDMP. Aortic ultrasound imaging: 2DB-mode ultrasound images of the aorta from ApoE−/− mice fed mice chow. Top panel (A, B, C) shows 20 week old mice. Bottom panel (D, E, F) shows 36 week old mice. Control (A) ApoE−/− mice fed mice chow. ApoE−/− mouse fed high fat, high cholesterol (HFHC) diet plus vehicle (B), HFHC plus 10mpk of D-PDMP (C). Thirty six week old control ApoE−/− mice fed mice chow (D); placebo fed HFHC chow (E) and HFHC fed mice treated with 10mpk D-PDMP (F). Note the arrows indicate marked increase in aortic wall thickening in HFHC plus vehicle fed; placebo (B mice) mice at 20 weeks of age. This was followed by a marked increase in Ca²⁺ deposits at 36 weeks of age (marked by asterisk) in this group of mice as compared to control mice. This was prevented by feeding D-PDMP (F). Aortic wall thickness and aortic wall stiffness in atherosclerotic mice is ameliorated by treatment with D-PDMP shown in graphs (G) and (H). Quantitation of intima-media thickness (AoIMT) (G) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) respectively (H), in ApoE−/− mouse on a mice chow diet (control 0.63 ± 0.04 mm/4.37±0.26 m/s), HFHC diet plus vehicle (Placebo 1.21 ± 0.06 mm/6.38±0.89 m/s) (H), HFHC diet plus treatment with 5 and 10mpk of D-DPMP (1.04 ± 0.04mm/6.07±0.5 m/s and 0.73 ± 0.04 mm/4.24±0.15 m/s). Note that both AoIMT and PWV increase continuously in placebo mice from 12 weeks to 36 weeks and this was ameliorated upon treatment with D-PDMP in a dose-dependent manner. A two-way RM ANOVA using the Bonferroni multiplo comparisons post-test was performed..* p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001; n = 3–5.