Foam cell formation in exudate peritoneal macrophages obtained from non-diabetic and diabetic <i>Apoe</i>^{<i>−/−</i>} mice (A), and diabetic <i>db/db</i> mice (B).

<p>Four days after an intraperitoneal injection of thioglycolate, the exudated peritoneal cells were isolated from the treated non-diabetic and diabetic <i>Apoe</i>^{<i>−/−</i>} mice at 21 weeks of age (Fig 3A), or from the diabetic <i>db/db</i> mice at 13 weeks of age (Fig 3B). Adherent macrophages were incubated for 18 hours with the RPMI-1640 medium containing 10μg/mL oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in the presence of 0.1 mmoL [³H]olate that was conjugated with bovine serum albumin. The cellular lipids were extracted and the radioactivity of the cholesterol [³H]olate was determined with thin-layer chromatography. Foam cell formation was expressed as cholesteryl ester (CE) accumulation. The values show mean ± SEM. One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test: ^‡<i>p</i> < 0.001, ^§<i>p</i> < 0.0001.