Opposite effect of caloric restriction on atherosclerosis in young ApoE/LDLr-/- mice

Caloric restriction (CR) has proved to be the most effective dietary intervention which leads to reduction of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) associated with obesity. Therefore, the effect of CR on development of atherosclerosis in young ApoE/LDLr-/- mice has been evaluated. 8-week-old male mice received control diet for 8 weeks. In order to assess if keeping the animals individually influences the tested parameters, the control animals were kept in colony cages (AL) or individually (stressAL; sAL) and fed ad libitum. Individually kept caloric restriction (CR) mice received a 30% less diet in comparison to AL group. The intestinal microbiome analysis was performed for those mice by V3-V4 16S rRNA gene sequencing with Illumina technology (MiSeq system and 2x300bp paired-end run).