Chlamydia pneumoniae infection accelerates hyperlipidemia induced atherosclerotic lesion development in C57BL/6J mice.
Considerable evidence of an association between Chlamydia pneumoniae infections and cardiovascular disease has emerged. Animal models using genetically altered mice and hypercholesterolemic rabbits have shown a pathogenic role of C. pneumoniae in accelerating atherosclerotic plaque development. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of chronic C. pneumoniae infection on atherosclerosis in C57BL/6J mice, fed either a regular chow diet or a high fat, high cholesterol diet. Infected animals on an atherogenic diet developed significantly larger lesion areas compared with control mice at 18 weeks (2.5-fold increase; 4177+/-777 vs. 1650+/-808 microm(2); P<0.05) and 24 weeks of age (3.3-fold increase; 14139+/-4147 vs. 4298+/-869 microm(2); P<0.02). This study shows that chronic C. pneumoniae infection accelerates atherosclerotic lesion development in diet induced hypercholesterolemic mice, indicating that C. pneumoniae is a co-risk factor of hyperlipidemia in atherogenesis.
Blessing
E
E
Department of Pathobiology, University of Washington, Box 357238, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Campbell
L A
LA
Rosenfeld
M E
ME
Chough
N
N
Kuo
C C
CC
D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000150:complications*; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae; D002791:Cholesterol, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004036:Diet, Atherogenic; D018450:Disease Progression; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012307:Risk Factors
D002791:Cholesterol, Dietary