Search

Objective To investigate the effect of exenatide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, on aortic lesions in ApoE-knock-out (ApoE-/-) mice with atherosclerosis. Methods ApoE-/-mice were randomly divided into normal diet group (n=14) and high-fat diet group (n=68). After fed for 12 weeks, 4 from normal diet group and 8 from high-fat diet group were randomly chosen for verification of model reproductions. Then the mice in high-fat diet group were divided into 6 groups (10 each): non-drug intervention group, atorvastatin group, exenatide low/high-dose groups and atorvastatin + exenatide low/high-dose groups. After 6 weeks of drug intervention, blood samples were collected from the retro-orbital venous plexus of the mice. All the mice were sacrificed by intraperitoneal injection of sodium pentobarbital, and paraffin sections of the aortic arch was processed for HE staining. The serum lipid level was measured by ELISA, the protein expressions of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) were determined by Western blotting. Results HE staining showed that the histology of the aorta of mice in normal diet group and atorvastatin + exenatide high-dose group were normal, but those of atorvastatin group and exenatide low/high-dose groups and atorvastatin + exenatide low-dose group showed extensive pathological thickening of endometrium. Lipid plaques were formed with visible lipid cores in the aorta of mice in non-drug intervention group. Application of exenatide alone or combined with atorvastatin reduced the levels of serum lipid (TC, TG, LDL-C) in varying degrees (P