E. Blessing et al., Chlamydia pneumoniae infection accelerates hyperlipidemia induced atherosclerotic lesion development in C57BL/6J mice, ATHEROSCLER, 158(1), 2001, pp. 13-17
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Cardiovascular & Respiratory Systems","Cardiovascular & Hematology Research
Considerable evidence of an association between Chlamydia pneumoniae infect
ions and cardiovascular disease has emerged. Animal models using geneticall
y altered mice and hypercholesterolemic rabbits have shown a pathogenic rol
e of C. pneumoniae in accelerating atherosclerotic plaque development. In t
he present study, we evaluated the effect of chronic C. pneumoniae infectio
n 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 de
veloped significantly larger lesion areas compared with control mice at 18
weeks (2.5-fold increase; 4177 +/- 777 vs. 1650 +/- 808 mum(2); P < 0.05) a
nd 24 weeks of age (3.3-fold increase; 14139 +/- 4147 vs. 4298 +/- 869 mum(
2); P < 0.02). This study shows that chronic C. pneumoniae infection accele
rates atherosclerotic lesion development in diet induced hypercholesterolem
ic mice, indicating that C. pneumoniae is a co-risk factor of hyperlipidemi
a in atherogenesis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reser
ved.