FIGURE 5.

Administration of lipopolysaccharides eliminates anti-atherosclerotic benefits of sivelestat in Apo E^-/- mice. Male Apo E^-/- mice were fed with HFHC diet for 4 weeks and then treated with sivelestat (Siv, 50 mg/kg per day, intraperitoneal injection) and LPS (25 μg/day, subcutaneous injection) or Veh for 8 weeks. (A–B) Oil Red O staining of en face aorta (A) and the quantitative analysis of relative lipid density (B). (C–D) Oil red O staining of the aorta root (C) and the quantitative analysis of the relative lipid density (D). Scale bar = 200 μm. (E–F) Real-time PCR analysis of gene levels of inflammatory cytokines (E), including Tnf-α, Il-1β, and Il-6, and chemokines (F) including Mcp-1 and Vcam-1. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. n = 6 mice/group and *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.