title: Quantitative analysis of atherosclerotic lesion composition in mice.
abstract: Comparative quantitation has become an increasingly desirable tool in determining compositional differences of aortic plaque lesion in transgenically altered mice. To this end, methodology has been developed to identify lipid, cellularity, collagen, and elastin components using traditional bright-field microscopy, fluorescence, and polarized light microscopy, employing both confocal and wide-field imaging systems. Subsequent imaging processing and analysis on the digitally captured images reveals differences in compositional components as influenced by diet, age and gender. This method can be expanded to employ a rich variety of histochemical and immunohistochemical staining protocols.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
authors.forename: Marilyn P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Wadsworth
authors.forename: Burton E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Sobel
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tra
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Hirtum
authors.forename: Douglas J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Taatjes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000473:pathology*; D006651:Histocytochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids