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Genetic Background Selectively Influences Innominate Artery Atherosclerosis: Immune System Deficiency as a Probe

Objective—We sought to examine whether there is a site-specific effect on atherosclerosis of the absence of mature T and B cells caused by a recombination activating-gene deficiency in LDL receptor-deficient mice and whether this effect is influence by the extent of backcrossing to C57BL/6 mice. Methods and Results—Male mice were fed atherogenic diets for 3 months. In strain 1 mice, in which ≈93% of the genes were from C57BL/6 mice, the absence of mature T and B cells led to a significant reduction in atherosclerosis in both the aortic sinus and the innominate artery. In strain 2 mice, in which ≈99+% of the genes were from C57BL/6 mice, immune system deficiency led to a site-specific effect on atherosclerosis, with a reduction in atherosclerosis in the aortic sinus but not in the innominate artery, similar to previous results obtained with apolipoprotein E−/− mice. All of the immune system-incompetent mice had lower plasma total and VLDL cholesterol levels regardless of strain or diet, indicating that differences in lipid levels were unlikely to be responsible for these site-specific effects of immune system deficiency. Conclusions—These results suggest that immune system deficiency has a site-specific effect on atherosclerosis that is sensitive to the genetic background of the mice.