Effects of macrophage ABCA7 deficiency on plasma lipid levels, atherosclerosis and ABCA1 expression in peritoneal macrophages from LDLr KO mice reconstituted with WT and ABCA7 KO bone marrow.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Blood samples were drawn after an overnight fast. The concentrations of cholesterol, phospholipids and triglycerides in serum were determined using enzymatic colorimetric assays. (<b>B</b>) The mean lesion area (µm²) was calculated from Oil red O-stained cross-sections of the aortic root at the level of the tricuspid valves. (<b>C</b>) Guanidium thiocyanate-phenol was used to extract total RNA from cells and mRNA expression was determined by real-time RT-PCR. Hypoxanthine Guanine Phosphoribosyl Transferase (HPRT), β-actin, and acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein PO (36B4) were used as the standard housekeeping genes. Relative gene expression was calculated by subtracting the threshold cycle number (Ct) of the target gene from the average Ct of housekeeping genes and raising two to the power of this difference. Values represent the mean ± SEM of ≥6 mice per group. Statistically significant difference *p<0.05.