Environmental Atherosclerosis Studies

工作概述：心血管生物学的研究人员正在努力确定参与动脉粥样硬化各个阶段的重要细胞和分子，以及促进病变形成的环境和遗传因素。模仿人类疾病的体内模型或过于依赖体外系统可能会产生误导。直到最近，动脉粥样硬化的研究主要集中在灵长类动物和低密度脂蛋白（LDL）受体缺乏的兔子身上。采用吸入法研究C57BL/6小鼠二硫化碳动脉粥样硬化的进展及机制；一个更适合外推到人类身上的模型。新的研究将集中在使用ApoE敲除小鼠来解决环境暴露后动脉粥样硬化假说。

Summary of Work: Researchers in cardiovascular biology are working to identify the important cells and molecules involved in each stage of atherosclerosis, as well as the environmental and genetic factors that promote lesion formation. In vivo models that mimic the human disease or rely too heavily on in vitro systems could be misleading. Until recently, atherogenesis had been studied mainly in primates and in low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor deficient rabbits. An inhalation study was conducted to investigate the progression and mechanism of carbon disulfide atherosclerosis in C57BL/6 mice; a model more appropriate for extrapolation to humans. New studies will focus on the use of ApoE knock out mice to address atherosclerosis hypothesis following environmental exposure.