title: Inhibition of early AAA formation by aortic intraluminal pentagalloyl glucose (PGG) infusion in a novel porcine AAA model.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The vast majority of abdominal aortic aneurysms found in screening programs are small, and as no effective treatment exits, many will expand until surgery is indicated. Therefore, it remains intriguing to develop a safe and low cost treatment of these small aneurysms, that is able to prevent or delay their expansion. In this study, we investigated whether intraluminal delivered pentagalloyl glucose (PGG) can impair the early AAA development in a porcine model.
  
  
  METHODS
  The infrarenal aorta was exposed in thirty pigs. Twenty underwent an elastase based AAA inducing procedure and ten of these received an additional intraluminal PGG infusion. The final 10 were sham operated and served as controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All pigs who only had an elastase infusion developed macroscopically expanding AAAs. In pigs treated with an additional PGG infusion the growth rate of the AP-diameter rapidly returned to physiological values as seen in the control group. In the elastase group, histology revealed more or less complete resolution of the elastic lamellae in the media while they were more abundant, coherent and structurally organized in the PGG group. The control group displayed normal physiological growth and histology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our model, intraluminal delivered PGG is able to penetrate the aortic wall from the inside and impair the early AAA development by stabilizing the elastic lamellae and preserving their integrity. The principle holds a high clinical potential if it can be translated to human conditions, since it, if so, potentially could represent a new drug for stabilizing small abdominal aneurysms.
authors.affiliation: Vascular Research Unit, Department of Vascular Surgery, Viborg Regional Hospital, Heibergs Alle 4, 8800, Viborg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Brian O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Kloster
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, OUH Odense University Hospital, Sdr. Boulevard 29, 5000, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.affiliation: Vascular Research Unit, Department of Vascular Surgery, Viborg Regional Hospital, Heibergs Alle 4, 8800, Viborg, Denmark; Elitary Research Centre of Individualized Medicine in Arterial Diseases (CIMA), Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, OUH Odense University Hospital, Sdr. Boulevard 29, 5000, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jes S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lindholt
keywords: AAA inhibition; Abdominal aortic aneurysm; Animal model; Pentagalloyl glucose