Zhang Yongqing's team research found that ApoE gene mutant dogs can effectively simulate human cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases

With the improvement of people's living standards and changes in eating habits, stroke and coronary artery disease caused by atherosclerosis have become the main causes of death worldwide
.

Lipid metabolism disorders are an important cause of atherosclerosis, and ApoE (ApoE) plays a key role in cholesterol metabolism
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Mice and rats with elevated cholesterol levels caused by ApoE mutations are widely used in the pathological study of atherosclerosis, but these animal models rarely show patients with severe atherosclerosis and related clinical conditions.
Symptoms limit their use in translational research
.

Domestic dogs are closer to humans than mice in many aspects such as anatomy, physiology and metabolism.
They have lived with humans for a long time and have a similar diet.
Therefore, they may be an ideal model for the study of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
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Recently, Zhang Yongqing's research team from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Sino Valley Biotechnology Company, the team of Professor Ji Xunming of Beijing Xuanwu Hospital, and the team of Professor Liu Enqi of Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College have jointly published a question in Science China Life Sciences.
The research paper for "Dogs lacking Apolipoprotein E show advanced atherosclerosis leading to apparent clinical complications" showed that ApoE mutant dogs exhibit heritable hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerotic phenotype and cause severe clinical symptoms
.

The cooperative team used magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound diagnosis, multi-omics and immunochemical analysis and other multidisciplinary methods to reveal that ApoE gene knockout dogs showed extensive and serious atherosclerotic plaques, arterial stenosis and occlusion, thrombosis, and finally It causes stroke and gangrene, and reproduces the pathological and clinical manifestations of patients with atherosclerosis
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The above-mentioned severe atherosclerosis and related clinical manifestations are rarely manifested in other animals such as mouse mutants, indicating that ApoE mutant dogs can be used for basic and translational research on atherosclerosis and related diseases
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Dog atherosclerosis and related strokes can be examined by non-invasive MRI and ultrasound analysis commonly used in hospitals, which facilitates the assessment of disease progression and prognosis
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ApoE homozygous mutant dogs cause stenosis and occlusion of the cerebral basilar artery and cardiac coronary artery due to severe atherosclerosis
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Dr.
Hui Zhao from the Institute of Genetics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr.
Di Wu from Xuanwu Hospital, and Jianping Zhao from Sino Valley, Dr.
Zhaolin Sun are the co-first authors of the paper, Jidong Mi from Sino Valley, Professor Enqi Liu from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Professor Xunming Ji from Xuanwu Hospital and Genetics from Chinese Academy of Sciences Researcher Zhang Yongqing from the Institute of Development is the co-corresponding author
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Researcher Wang Yingchun from the proteomics platform of the Institute of Genetics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researcher Shi Guanghou from the lipidomics platform, and researcher Du Zhuo from the Center for Molecular Systems Biology participated in this project
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The project received strong support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Foundation of China, Beijing Municipality and the Chinese Academy of Sciences
.

For details of the research, please read the original text▼[click the link below or read the original text] Zhao, H.
, Zhao, J.
, Wu, D.
, Sun, Z.
, Hua, Y.
, Zheng, M.
, Liu, Y.
, Yang , Q.
, Huang, X.
, Li, Y.
, et al.
(2021).
Dogs lacking Apolipoprotein E show advanced atherosclerosis leading to apparent clinical complications.
Sci China Life Sci 64, https://doi.
org/10.
1007/ s11427-021-2006-y