“Dietary Factor” in Necrotizing Arteritis in Dogs a Lipid Substance. ∗

Abstract

During the past several years arterial lesions affecting principally the large elastic arteries (aorta, pulmonary artery, endocardium of the left auricle, and coronary arteries) have been produced with regularity by controlling 2 factors, diet and renal insufficiency. 1 The arterial lesions have been described and illustrated in previous publications, and the evidence for a dietary factor has been reviewed in a recent publication. 1

In this paper is presented a summary of the data obtained from systematically testing the ingredients of the “standard diet” which was being fed at the time these unanticipated lesions were first encountered.

Method. The methods have been detailed in a previous publication. 1 Briefly, these consist of feeding a specified diet for a specified period of time (usually 8 weeks or longer), then damaging the kidneys (usually with heavy metal injury), and examining the arterial system both grossly and histologically when the animals die or are sacrificed (usually days or weeks after the renal injury).

“Standard diet,” the diet that was being fed at the time these unanticipated lesions were first encountered, consisted of calves liver (raw wet weight), 32 parts; cane sugar, 25 parts; corn starch, 25 parts; butter, 12 parts; and commercial cod liver oil (USP XI-vitamin A, 850 I.U. per g, and vitamin D, 85 I.U. per g), 6 parts. Enough tomato juice was added to make a paste of which each gram contained 3 calories. The diet was fed in amounts to furnish 75 calories per kg per day. Five grams of kaolin and 1 g of salt mixture were added to each day's diet. Essentially, this is a low protein diet with only 7% of its caloric value derived from protein, 43% from fat, and 50% from carbohydrate.