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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Mar 8.
Published in final edited form as: J Am Coll Cardiol. 2016 Mar 8;67(9):1091–1103. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2015.12.048

Figure 3. An “Echo” of Systemic Inflammation in the Atheroma.

Figure 3

(A) The left-hand panel shows northern blots for IL-1α-(top) and IL-1β (bottom) in the aortas of nonatherosclerotic and atherosclerotic animals without or with intravenous administration of Gram-negative bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]). Note the striking increase in mRNA encoding both isoforms of IL-1 in the atherosclerotic artery following LPS administration. (B) mRNA concentrations measured by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction in extracts of the aortas of rabbits that consumed a chow diet or graded increases in concentrations of dietary cholesterol from 0.1% to 0.9 %. Note the marked increase in IL-1β mRNA concentrations in the animals treated with intravenous endotoxin for 1 h (gray bars) versus control. These early experiments illustrate the principle that the resting atheroma can undergo inflammatory activation in response to a systemic proinflammatory stimulus. LPS = lipopolysaccharide; mRNA = messenger ribonucleic acid; RNA = ribonucleic acid. Other abbreviations as in Figure 2.