Implantation of a carotid cuff for triggering shear-stress induced atherosclerosis in mice.

It is widely accepted that alterations in vascular shear stress trigger the expression of inflammatory genes in endothelial cells and thereby induce atherosclerosis (reviewed in (1) and (2)). The role of shear stress has been extensively studied in vitro investigating the influence of flow dynamics on cultured endothelial cells and in vivo in larger animals and humans. However, highly reproducible small animal models allowing systematic investigation of the influence of shear stress on plaque development are rare.