Figure 3.

Bright field images of aortic roots of (a) a non-atherogenic wild type C57/Bl6 mice on regular chow stained with H&E and (b) an atherosclerotic LDLR-KO mice fed a high fat diet for 14 weeks stained with H&E and oil-red-O, note lipids/atherosclerosis stained in red. (c) Quantification of Oil Red O staining of aortic root regions in (a) and (b). Fluorescent microscopy of aortic roots of LDLR-KO mouse fed a high fat diet for 14 weeks, injected with (d) non-targeted PA (e) targeted PA (ApoA1 PA), and (f) therapeutic targeted PA (LXR-40% ApoA1 PA); all mice in C-E sacrificed 24 hours after injection. Red fluorescence represents Alexa Fluor 546 and indicates presence of nanofibers. The elastic laminae of the vessel walls are auto fluorescent and were visualized with a green filter. (g) Quantification of PA binding to the aortic root in (d)-(f). Injections were given at a dose of 6 mg/kg PA or 6 mg/kg PA + 6 mg/kg LXR. All images were taken with the 5× objective.