Detection of Intraplaque Hemorrhage in Mouse Atherosclerotic Lesions.

Intraplaque hemorrhage is defined as the presence of fresh or lysed erythrocytes, iron deposits in macrophages, and/or a fibrin clot in an atherosclerotic plaque. These features can be detected by hematoxylin and eosin, Martius scarlet Blue, and Perl's iron histological stainings. It is noteworthy that intraplaque hemorrhage is only present in murine atherosclerotic plaques after additional interventions or additional genetic traits affecting matrix degradation or thrombosis. In this chapter, we describe methods to detect intraplaque hemorrhage in mouse atherosclerotic lesions.