Chronic rapamycin treatment reduces mTOR activity in aortas and brain
vasculature of LDLR−/− mice. (a) Blood levels of
rapamycin in mice of Cohort 1 after 30 weeks of treatment. Blood
levels of control-treated animals were below the detection limit
(D.L.) of 0.5 ng/ml. (b) Significantly reduced phosphorylation of
rpS6, a downstream target of mTOR, in aortas from rapamycin-treated
animals (**, p = 0.004, Student’s unpaired
t test); (c) Significantly reduced rpS6
phosphorylation in brain vasculature purified from rapamycin-treated
animals of Cohort 4 following 20 weeks of treatment (***,
F(3,12) = 12.06, p < 0.001, Tukey’s test on a
significant effect of treatment, one-way ANOVA); (d) Rapamycin
levels in liver in animals of Cohort 4. n = 8–10/group. Data are
means ± SEM.