Phenotypes of Ldlr and Apoe Knockout Mice for Cardiovascular Disease Research
When fed a standard chow diet, 8-week-old mice with Apoe (B6.129P2-Apoetm1Unc/J, 002052) and Ldlr (B6.129S7-Ldlrtm1Her/J, 002207) mutations develop a spectrum of cardiovascular phenotypes that include:
- Greatly elevated serum cholesterol in male and female Apoe and Ldlr knockout mice
- Increased HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and ApoB in male and female Ldlr knockout mice
- Male Apoe knockout mice have elevated triglycerides
The Mouse Phenome Database (MPD) contains the complete data (Jaxpheno18 dataset), including body weights, hematology at 8 weeks of age, and serum chemistries at 6, 10, 12 and 14 weeks. Mice were fed LabDiet® 5K52 formulation (6% fat) diet. Additional data in MPD (Jaxpheno10 dataset) includes cardiac pathology images and chemistries at older ages.
Clinical Chemistry. Values represent mean and one standard deviation of 10 non-fasted Apoe or Ldlr knockout mice and 5 C57BL/6J per sex. Units are mg/dL for all measurements except for free fatty acids, which are expressed as mEq/L. Results were obtained using serum from submandibular blood and a Beckman Coulter AU680 chemistry analyzer. Results were compared separately by strain and sex to C57BL/6J control mice using two-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparisons test to identify values that differed significantly, using GraphPad Prism version 7.04 for Windows (GraphPad Software).
| Apoe-null | Ldlr-null | C57BL/6J | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Females | Males | Females | Males | Females | Males | |
| Cholesterol | 470 ± 45a | 531 ± 42a | 322 ± 31a | 310 ± 29a | 93 ± 21 | 126 ± 18 |
| LDL | 33 ± 10 | 29 ± 19 | 88 ± 7a | 65 ± 11a | 6 ± 1 | 4 ± 1 |
| HDL | 56 ± 8 | 88 ± 12 | 112 ± 8a | 136 ± 6a | 64 ± 17 | 87 ± 9 |
| Glucose | 153 ± 17 | 148 ± 23 | 160 ± 20 | 182 ± 17 | 149 ± 17 | 163 ± 24 |
| Triglycerides | 171 ± 31 | 239 ± 62a | 195 ± 28a | 206 ± 26b | 145 ± 31 | 169 ± 31 |
| Apo A1 | 1.5 ± 0.7 | 6.4 ± 2.5 | 8.7 ± 0.6 | 13.2 ± 1.2 | 9.0 ± 1.8 | 12.7 ± 1.5 |
| Apo B | 16.7 ± 3.6 | 15.7 ± 3.9 | 36.3 ± 4.2c | 37.7 ± 4.0c | 9.2 ± 2.0 | 11.0 ± 1.2 |
| Free Fatty Acids | 2.9 ± 0.3 | 2.9 ± 0.4 | 2.5 ± 0.3 | 2.3 ± 0.2 | 2.5 ± 0.4 | 2.4 ± 0.4 |
| aP < 0.0001, bP < 0.001, cP < 0.05 compared to C57BL/6J mice of the same sex | ||||||