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The Role Of Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress In Cardiovascular Disease Development, Corey Michael Harrison

All ETDs from UAB

An estimated 70 million Americans have one or more types of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although the sequence of events leading to CVD are still controversial, there is a general consensus that atherosclerotic lesions result from oxidative stress associated with risk factor. For this study, it was hypothesized that endogenous mitochondrial oxidative stress would influence susceptibility to atherogenesis and mitochondrial damage mediated by CVD risk factor exposure. To test this hypothesis, atherosclerotic lesion formation, oxidant stress, and mitochondrial DNA damage were assessed in hypercholestoremic mice (apolipoprotein E null - apoE -/- SOD2 +/+) and mice with significantly decreased levels of the …