Establishment and evaluation of rabbit unstable atherosclerotic plaque model induced by cold stress / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To establish and evaluate unstable atherosclerotic plaque model in abdominal aorta induced by cold stress. Methods Sixty male New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into three groupscold stress group fed with high fat diet and followed by balloon induced arterial wall injury of abdominal aorta at week 2 and exposed to cold (4℃) for 1 h per day except for the first postoperative week,balloon-injury group treated by high fat diet plus balloon-injury, control group fed a normal chow without any treatment. Pathological changes of atherosclerotic plaques among these groups were evaluated at 20 weeks. Meanwhile, serum concentrations of blood lipid,oxidized low density protein(ox-LDL),hypersensitive C-reaction protein (hs-CRP)and interleukin (IL)-8 were determined. Results There was no difference in blood lipid level between cold-stress and balloon-injury groups.Serum concentrations of ox-LDL[(56.1 +14.3)mg/L vs.(42.9± 13.8)mg/L],hs-CRP[(149.1+78.3)mg/L vs. (94.5±57.3)mg/L],IL-8 [(97.6±17.9)μg/L vs.(57.5±18.3)μg/L]and macrophage infiltration[(30.9±5.6)％ vs,(18.7±4.8) ％] were significantly higher in cold stress group than in balloon-injury group (t =2.78,6.91,14.94,6.88,all P＜0.05). Higher angiogenesis rate of atherosclerotic plaque in cold-stress group (23/31,74.1％) was observed in comparison with group balloon-injury(5/25,20,0％)(x2=16.26,P＜0.05). Conclusions Establishment of rabbit unstable atherosclerotic plaque model induced by cold stress in synergy with high fat diet and balloon-injury is feasible, which is superior to conventional method through high fat diet plus balloon-injury surgery.