Plasminogen deficiency accelerates vessel wall disease in mice predisposed to atherosclerosis

摘要

A critical link between hemostatic factors and atherosclerosis has been inferred from a variety of indirect observations, including the expression of procoagu- lant and fibrinolytic factors within atherosclerotic vessels, the presence of fibrin in intimal lesions, and the cellular infiltra- tion of mural thrombi leading to their incorporation into developing plaques. To directly examine the role of the key fibrinolytic factor, plasminogen, in atherogenesis, plasmino- gen-deficient mice were crossed to hypercholesterolemic, apo- lipoprotein E-deficient mice predisposed to atherosclerosis. We report that the loss of plasminogen greatly accelerates the formation of intimal lesions in apolipoprotein E-deficient animals, whereas plasminogen deficiency alone does not cause appreciable atherosclerosis.