Angiotensin II-induced aortic aneurysms in mice

Angiotensin II (AngII) infusion into mice induces both abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysms. Continuous delivery of AngII is achieved by subcutaneous implantation of osmotic pumps. The accumulated experience of many laboratories has provided templates for standardizing procedures to enhance reproducibility of data in the quantification and characterization of AngII-induced aortic aneurysms. This chapter provides suggestions for standard protocols, experimental designs, execution, and data interpretation. It includes discussion of the confounding issues in quantifying compositional characteristics of AngII-induced aortic aneurysms.