Fig. 2

Treatment of T0 and MGF activates expression of LXR target molecules in macrophage and inhibits foam cell formation. A Peritoneal macrophages collected from mice were stained with Oil Red O or anti-bodipy antibody (green) to evaluate formation of foam cells (> 10 lipid droplets per cell, > 10 fields per sample), scale bar, 20 μm; and cholesterol contents were measured. ^***p < 0.001, n = 3. Expression of (B) ABCA1 and (C) ABCG1 (stained with red fluorescent color) was determined by immunofluorescent staining of aortic root cross sections from Apoe^−/− mice and quantified by a computer-assisted image analysis protocol. Scale bar, 100 μm. ^**p < 0.01, n = 3. Expression of ABCA1, ABCG1, LXRα and CD36 in cultured peritoneal macrophages (D) and RAW264.7 cells (E) was determined by western blot with total proteins extracted from cell samples. ^***p < 0.001, ^**p < 0.01, ^*p < 0.05 (n = 3)