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A High Fat/High Carbohydrate Diet Induces Aortic Valve Disease in C57BL/6J Mice

Marie-Claude Drolet, MS^_*, Elise Roussel, MS^_*, Yves Deshaies, PhD, Jacques Couet, PhD^_*,_* and Marie Arsenault, MD^_*

^_* Groupe de recherche en valvulopathies, Institut de cardiologie de Québec, Québec, Canada
Département d’anatomie et de physiologie, Faculté de médecine, Centre de recherche Hôpital Laval, Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, Québec, Canada.

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Figure 1 Aortic valve area (AVA) (open circles) and body weight (closed circles) evolution during the study in wild-type mice fed with a normal diet (A) or a high-fat/high-carbohydrate (HF/HC) diet (B). (C) Maximal transvalvular velocities (cm/s) over time during the study. Results are presented as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 vs. baseline (month 0) by repeated measures analysis of variance with Tukey post-hoc test. ##p < 0.01 between indicated values by unpaired t test.

View larger version (125K): [in a new window]   Figure 2 Typical examples of maximal transvalvular aortic velocities in wild-type mice fed with normal diet (top) or high-fat/high-carbohydrate (HF/HC) diet (bottom) by continuous-wave Doppler.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Figure 3 Leaflet thickness in wild-type mice fed with high-fat/high-carbohydrate (HF/HC) diet vs. normal diet. Results are expressed in arbitrary units (AU) with normal leaflet thickness set at 100. An unpaired t test was used for the statistical comparison.

View larger version (67K): [in a new window]   Figure 4 Increased aortic valve leaflet (arrows) thickness in wild-type mouse fed a high-fat/high-carbohydrate (HF/HC) diet (middle) compared with normal diet (top). Leaflets in HF/HC animals show positive labeling for macrophages (CD68-positive cells) and foam cells (arrows). Inset (middle section) shows a magnified view of the diseased leaflet. Bottom panel shows calcium deposits (arrow) in an aortic valve leaflet of an HF/HC diet-fed wild-type mouse by von Kossa’s stain.