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-Apoe^tm1Unc/J, 002052) and Ldlr (B6.129S7-Ldlr^tm1Her/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).