Niemann-Pick C1 protects against atherosclerosis in mice via regulation of macrophage intracellular cholesterol trafficking
J. Clin. Invest. Jessie R. Zhang, et al. 118:2281 doi:10.1172/JCI32561 [Go to this article.]

Figure 5
Reduced expression of cholesterol transporters and cholesterol efflux in MϕNpc1^–/– chimeric mice. (A) Abca1 and Abcg1 gene expression in peritoneal macrophages harvested from high-fat diet–fed MϕNpc1^+/+ and MϕNpc1^–/– mice. Expression was determined by real-time quantitative RT-PCR and normalized to expression in MϕNpc1^+/+ macrophages. (B and C) Cholesterol efflux to apoA-I and HDL from peritoneal macrophages harvested from high-fat diet–fed MϕNpc1^+/+ and MϕNpc1^–/– mice. Cells were incubated overnight with AcLDL labeled with [³H]cholesterol, followed by incubation for 4 (B) or 24 hours (C) in medium containing 0.2% BSA with 10 μg/ml human apoA-I or 50 μg/ml human HDL. ApoA-I– or HDL-specific cholesterol efflux is shown as the radioactivity released from the cells into the medium, expressed as a percentage relative to the total radioactivity in cells and media. T/9-cis RA, T0901317. Data are mean ± SEM of triplicate determinations and are representative of 2 independent experiments. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01 versus respective MϕNpc1^+/+; ^#P ≤ 0.05, ^##P ≤ 0.01 versus respective untreated MϕNpc1^–/–; ^†P = NS versus untreated ApoA-I MϕNpc1^+/+.