Figure 1: TREM-1 promotes atherogenesis in absence of an altered lipid metabolism.

(a–d) Extent of atherosclerosis in female Trem1^+/+ Apoe^−/− (n=13) and Trem1^−/− Apoe^−/− mice (n=12) at 16 weeks post HFCD feeding as assessed by computational analysis of Oil-red O (ORO) stained aortas. (a) Selected examples of en face preparations of the aortas; for each group of mice, an aorta with a representative extent of atherosclerosis is shown. Scale bars, 10 mm. (b) Overall extent of atherosclerosis (aortic lesion surface area expressed as % of total aortic surface). (c) Mean individual lesion size per individual mouse and aorta. (d) Number of enumerable lesions per aorta. (b–d) Circles show individual data for mice from three pooled independent experiments, lines indicate mean values per group of mice. (e,f) Extent of atherosclerotic lesions in the aortic root at 16 weeks post HFCD feeding. (e) Representative examples of ORO-stained sections of the aortic root. Scale bars, 500 μm. (f) The lesion area was calculated from 10 sequential ORO-stained sections for each Trem1^+/+ Apoe^−/− (n=11) and Trem1^−/− Apoe^−/− (n=12) mouse. Circles show data for individual mice. (g) Fasting serum concentrations of total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL cholesterol of Trem1^+/+ Apoe^−/− (n=13) and Trem1^−/− Apoe^−/− (n=12) mice at 16 weeks post HFCD feeding. ***P<0.001 as determined by the two-tailed t-test. Statistically not significant differences with P>0.05 are not indicated.