title: Quantification of Apoptosis in Mouse Atherosclerotic Lesions.
abstract: Apoptosis is a key process occurring in atherosclerosis, both in humans and in animal models. Apoptosis occurs in all cell types studied thus far, and thus lineage marking is often necessary. Apoptosis should be ascertained using a combination of morphological features and activation of specific pathways (e.g., terminal UTP nick end labeling-TUNEL). Both TUNEL and cryptic epitope antibodies (e.g., cleaved caspase 3) can be used, although they will often give different frequencies. Apoptotic frequency but not rate can be estimated from these methods, as we do not know the timing of apoptosis or how much of the process is marked by each method. We describe the morphological and immunohistochemical methods used in our laboratory to detect apoptotic cells in animal and human atherosclerotic plaques.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Addenbrooke's Centre for Clinical Investigation, University of Cambridge, Box 110, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Nichola L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Figg
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Addenbrooke's Centre for Clinical Investigation, University of Cambridge, Box 110, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK. mrb@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Martin R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bennett
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D001158:Arteries / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D020169:Caspases / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D051379:Mice; D008853:Microscopy; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D020169:Caspases
keywords: Apoptosis; Atherosclerosis; Caspase; TUNEL