Fig. 7. High-fat diet activates endothelial canonical Wnt signaling via p66^Shc.

(a) High-fat diet (HFD) feeding increases Wnt3a mRNA in whole aorta of wild-type C57Bl/6 (WT) and ApoE^−/− mice (n = 3). (b) Representative photomicrographs showing increased immunostaining for Wnt3a in aortic endothelium of WT HFD-fed mice. ND=normal diet. c) High-fat diet feeding stimulates dephosphorylation of vascular β-catenin and serine 36 phosphorylation of p66^Shc. Dephosphorylation of endothelial β-catenin is suppressed in mice transgenic for p66^Shc shRNA (p66^ShcRNAi). d) High-fat diet feeding increases endothelial expression of β-catenin target gene c-myc in WT mice. All the values are shown as Mean ± SEM. * P < 0.05 vs. indicated group.