Cholesterol atheroma in rabbits

Abstract

The experiments of Ignatowski and Chalatow in which they produced atheroma of the aorta by feeding rabbits on egg yolk or pure cholesterol have been repeated. Each of a series of rabbits was given the yolk of one egg daily mixed with its ordinary food. Other rabbits received daily from 0.2 to 0.5 gm. of pure cholesterol dissolved in cotton seed oil, mixed with their regular food. Three rabbits have thus far come to autopsy: one which had been on an egg diet for 30 days, one on an egg diet for 77 days, and one on a cholesteroe diet for 37 days. All three rabbits show pronounced lesions, the most notable of which are as follows:

In the gross the aorta shows raised irregular yellowish white placques, varying in size from a fraction of a millimeter to several millimeters in diameter. In several cases these are thickly placed and may be scattered over the entire length of the aorta. The pulmonary artery shows similar lesions which in one case are as pronounced as those in the aorta. The liver is of a deep yellow color; the adrenals of a uniform almost white color. The kidneys on section show a deep yellow medulla rather sharply outlined from the brownish red cortex. Very fine yellow lines can be seen in the cortex radiating outward from the medulla.

Microscopically the aorta shows a nodular thickening of the intima made up of large round cells loaded with fat. The inner portion of the media, underlying the intimal lesions, is also involved. Here the fat present is also, for the greater part, intracellular.

The liver shows a marked deposit of fat contained first in the Kupffer cells, later in the parenchymal cells in the centres of the lobules.