Figure 1.Effects of Tan IIA on HCh diet-induced AS lesion formation, serum lipid levels and cytokine productions in ApoE-/- mice. (A) Molecular structure of Tanshinone IIA. (B) AS lesions stained by Oil Red O in the aorta of ApoE-deficient mice fed on the different diets (regular diet, HCh diet and HCh diet plus Tan IIA (20 mg/kg/day)). (C) Percentage of the lesion area of the aorta was calculated as the ratio of the lesion area to the total area. (D) Histological images of frozen section of the lesions stained with Oil Red O and Haematoxylin/eosin (HE). (E) Relative lesion area of the section of AS in the aorta. Average areas of AS lesions were calculated from 12 sections in ApoE-deficient mice fed on the different diets. (F–G) Levels of T-Ch and HDL-Ch in the sera of ApoE-deficient mice fed with different diets for 16 weeks.
(H–I) Levels of LDL-Ch and TG in the sera of ApoE-deficient mice fed with different diets for 16 weeks. Oxidized LDL-induced and Tan IIA inhibited cytokine (IL-1β, TNFα, IL-6 and IL-18) productions at mRNA levels measured by qRT-PCR in the aortic tissues (J–M) and at protein levels determined by ELISA in the sera (N–Q). (R, S) Effects of Tan IIA (2.5, 5, 10 μg/mL) on oxLDL-induced IL-1β productions in the culture media of LPS-primed and un-primed mouse B6 macrophages, respectively. (T, U) Effects of Tan IIA on oxLDL-induced caspase-1 activation (10 kDa) and IL-1β maturation (17 kDa) in mouse B6 macrophages.
