Decreased dietary lipid deposition in spontaneous lesions distal to a stenosis in the rat caudal artery.
When male Wistar rats are fed a high fat and cholesterol diet, the small lesions in the caudal artery which form spontaneously with age exhibit, to various degrees, focal accumulation of lipids. Lesions in the proximal part of the artery show more intense lipid deposits than those in the distal part. In order to determine the influence of changes in hemodynamic factors on lipid accumulation within these lesions, a stenosis was experimentally induced in the proximal part of the caudal artery in 15, 5-week old rats. These rats, plus 15 age-matched controls, were then fed a high fat and cholesterol diet for 8 weeks and thereafter their caudal arteries were taken for histological examination and quantification of lipid deposits within lesions. Results showed that in the stenosed arteries, the mean percentage of highly fatty lesions was significantly decreased and that of fat-free lesions was significantly increased distal to the stenosis compared to control arteries, indicating the importance of hemodynamic factors in the deposition of nutritional lipids within spontaneous arterial lesions. However, within the stenosed group, there was apparently no correlation between the degree of stenosis and the extent of fat deposits within lesions.
D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000378:metabolism*; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic / Q000378:metabolism; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000378:metabolism*; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D004041:Dietary Fats