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. 2020 Jul 3;21(13):4746. doi: 10.3390/ijms21134746

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Intraperitoneal administration of desferricoprogen (DFC) attenuates atherosclerosis in mice. Eight-week-old Apolipoprotein-E-deficient (ApoE−/−) mice were fed ad libitum with an atherogenic diet containing 5% fat and 1.25% cholesterol and divided into DFC group (n = 17) receiving 160 mg/kg intraperitoneal DFC and control group (n = 21) receiving physiological saline every second day for 8 weeks. (A) Molecular structure of the coprogen. (B) Atherosclerotic lesions were examined by Oil Red O staining of en face aortas derived from DFC-treated or control mice. Scale bar: 1 mm. (C) Quantitative analysis of atherosclerotic plaque burden in Oil Red O-stained aortas using Image J software. (D) Immunohistochemical analysis of aortic cryosections (6 µm) derived from control and DFC-treated mice stained for Hematoxylin-Eosin (first row), Elastin (second row) and Oil Red O (third row) was performed with Image J software. Scale bar: 0.2 mm. (E) Quantitative analysis of plasma high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), cholesterol and triglycerides levels of control and DFC-treated mice on an atherogenic diet. The graph shows the mean ± SEM of 6 mice plasma cholesterol levels per group. *p < 0.05; ns: not significant.