ABSTRACT
Rats fed a normo- or hyper-cholesterolic diet were treated for 7 days with indobufen or ticlopidine hydrochloride (Ticl.HCl) orally, 20 mg/kg/day. At the end of treatment, the animals were perfused in vivo to fix the cell and to dye the intracellular junctions of the endothelial reticulum of the arterial wall. The integrity of the aortic endothelial layer was evaluated microscopically. Rats fed a normo- or hyper-cholesterolic diet, treated with indobufen, did not differ from the control group as regards the parameters in question. The animals treated with Ticl.HCl presented a reticulo-endothelial injury when fed a normo-lipidic diet and smooth muscle cell infiltration, an indicator of more advanced lesion, when fed a hypercholesterolic diet.
Subject(s)
Aorta, Thoracic/drug effects , Hypercholesterolemia/drug therapy , Phenylbutyrates/pharmacology , Ticlopidine/pharmacology , Animals , Aorta, Thoracic/pathology , Arteriosclerosis/etiology , Endothelium/drug effects , Endothelium/pathology , Hypercholesterolemia/pathology , Isoindoles , Male , Platelet Aggregation/drug effects , RatsABSTRACT
Male Wistar rats were used in a study of removal of the endothelium and endothelial regeneration in the large arteries. The endothelium was stripped completely by surgery from a well-defined segment, with no branches, of the left common carotid artery of rats, drying the vessel by blowing a gentle air stream through the lumen. The animals were fed the normocholesterolic or hypercholesterolic diets. The conditions of the denuded arterial segment were checked histologically at various intervals after the operation. The exposed area became covered with new endothelial cells growing from the two margins of the damaged area; regeneration was complete by about 20 days in normocholesterollemic rats (99.06%) and in a slightly lower proportion of the rats on the atherogenic diet (90.56%). The animals with induced hypercholesterolemia, however, had a significantly larger amount of missing endothelium on day 11 after surgery than the controls. This suggests that hypercholesterolemia affects not only the severity of the lesion but also the rate of endothelial repair.
Subject(s)
Carotid Arteries/physiopathology , Endothelium, Vascular/physiopathology , Hypercholesterolemia/physiopathology , Regeneration , Animals , Arteriosclerosis/etiology , Arteriosclerosis/pathology , Arteriosclerosis/physiopathology , Diet, Atherogenic , Disease Models, Animal , Endothelium, Vascular/pathology , Male , Rats , Rats, Inbred StrainsABSTRACT
A new technique for measuring spontaneous or induced endothelial lesions in animals was used to analyse the endothelial integrity of the aortas of rats fed a normolipidic or high-cholesterol diet. Animals fed a hypercholesterolic diet for 7 days differed from animals fed a normolipidic diet in that they presented endothelial lesions in accordance with the lipid hypothesis of atherosclerosis.
Subject(s)
Aorta/pathology , Arteriosclerosis/etiology , Cholesterol, Dietary/administration & dosage , Endothelium/pathology , Animals , Arteriosclerosis/pathology , Cholesterol/blood , Cholesterol, Dietary/pharmacology , Endothelium/drug effects , Male , RatsABSTRACT
We have patented a photographic film on which a series of parallel lines or concentric circles are reproduced, in various sizes, to provide a reference measurement for counting surfaces in a histological specimen without having to alter it in any way. The area of the preparation examined can thus be determined in numerical terms. This grating film can be used as a cover-slide for example, to calculate a surface that is different from normal, to map the distribution of different areas, etc. We use the grating film in studies of the condition of the endothelium of the carotid artery and aorta from rats fed a normolipidic diet.