Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of whole body overexpression of human ABCG1 on atherosclerosis in apoE(-/-) mice.
Methods and results: We generated BAC transgenic mice in which human ABCG1 is expressed from endogenous regulatory signals, leading to a 3- to 7-fold increase in ABCG1 protein across various tissues. Although the ABCG1 BAC transgene rescued lung lipid accumulation in ABCG1(-/-) mice, it did not affect plasma lipid levels, macrophage cholesterol efflux to HDL, atherosclerotic lesion area in apoE(-/-) mice, or levels of tissue cholesterol, cholesterol ester, phospholipids, or triglycerides. Subtle changes in sterol biosynthetic intermediate levels were observed in liver, with chow-fed ABCG1 BAC Tg mice showing a nonsignificant trend toward decreased levels of lathosterol, lanosterol, and desmosterol, and fat-fed mice exhibiting significantly elevated levels of each intermediate. These changes were insufficient to alter ABCA1 expression in liver.
Conclusions: Transgenic human ABCG1 does not influence atherosclerosis in apoE(-/-) mice but may participate in the regulation of tissue cholesterol biosynthesis.