Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 2 pp 1704—1724

Figure 2. AsC attenuated atherosclerosis in HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice and reduced foam cell formation in vitro. All mice were fed a HFD in the presence or absence of AsC (20 mg·kg^-1·day^-1, i.g.) for 4 weeks. In the in vitro assay, RAW264.7 cells were pretreated with AsC (20 μM) for 12 h, and then exposed to ox-LDL for another 24 h. (A) Experimental protocol of the in vivo study. (B) Body weight. (C) Blood lipid levels. (D) Representative images of oil red O staining of the aortic root. (E) Quantification of the plaque area by oil red O staining. (F) Representative images of oil red O staining in ox-LDL-treated RAW264.7 cells. (G) Quantification of oil red O staining, as detected by a microplate reader. (H) Cd36 expression level in ox-LDL-treated RAW264.7 cells, as determined by flow cytometry. The data are presented as the means ± SDs (n = 5). ^##P < 0.01 vs. the control group, ^**P < 0.01 vs. the model group; N.S. means no significance.