Journal of atherosclerosis research最新文献

The effect of Clofibrate administration on the serum triglyceride response to high caloric sucrose diets has been investigated in normal males. In each subject the sucrose diet increased the serum triglyceride concentration. Clofibrate treatment of normal individuals eating an ad-libitum diet did not decrease the serum triglyceride concentration. Clofibrate therapy did not block the hypertriglyceridemic response to the sucrose diet.

[26-¹⁴C]Cholesterol was injected intravenously into 4 healthy male subjects. Muscular exercise greatly increased the respiratory excretion of ¹⁴C0₂.

In the in vitro aorta intima-media preparation, glucose stimulates the synthesis of non-saponifiable lipids and fatty acids (FA), while addition of insulin has no effect. The synthesis of these lipids is depressed in aorta and liver from diabetic rats. Insulin treatment increases FA synthesis by aorta of diabetic rats only, but in liver of diabetic and normal animals insulin enhances the synthesis of FA and non-saponifiable lipids.

During a double-blind investigation of the haemorrheological effects of low molecular weight dextran (mol.wt. 40,000) in 33 patients with acute myocardial infarction, a significant cholesterol-lowering effect of Dextran-40 was demonstrated.

The average serum cholesterol level decreased from 264 mg/100 ml to 166 mg/100 ml on the 7th day in the group of patients receiving a daily infusion of 500 ml of Dextran-40 for 5 days, whereas the serum cholesterol level only decreased from 289 mg/100 ml-240 mg/100 ml in the placebo group. The possible mechanism of the hypolipidaemic effect of dextran and other osmotic active compounds is discussed.

The phospholipid changes which occur in the diseased cornea, iris and atherosclerotic intima from rabbits fed 1 % cholesterol for 2 or 3 months, were studied. A significant correlation between total cholesterol and total phospholipid was found in each of the three tissues at both time intervals studied. The composition of the tissue phospholipid, which accumulated as a result of cholesterol feeding, was compared to that of the plasma in animals fed 1% cholesterol for 3 months. The distribution of phospholipid in the diseased cornea was essentially the same as that found in the plasma, both being characterized by a high percentage of lecithin (77.5 and 67.4 %, respectively). On the other hand, the phospholipids obtained from the diseased iris and atherosclerotic intima contained a high percentage of sphingomyelin (35.0 and 37.7 %, respectively) and lower percentage of lecithin (34.0 and 40.1 %, respectively) than did the plasma (sphingomyelin = 15.8 % and lecithin = 67.4 %). The decrease in percent of tissue lecithin was not a result of increase in sphingomyelin since the concentration of the two phospholipids increased in both tissues. These data suggest that the mechanism of lipid accumulation in the atherosclerotic intima and the diseased iris may be similar and may not be the result of simple lipid infiltration from the plasma.

Aortic atherosclerosis was induced by feeding turkeys 2% cholesterol from 6–14, 24, 30 and 32 weeks of age. Simple, intermediate and advanced stages of aortic atherosclerosis, resulting from feeding cholesterol for the 4 different time intervals, were studied by histologic and electron microscopic techniques. The simplest lesion was characterized by lipid vacuoles in the aortic endothelium, non-membrane bound lipid between cells in the plaque, widening of the extracellular spaces, and fraying of basement membranes of modified smooth muscle cells.

An intermediate lesion contained foam cells and necrotic modified smooth muscle cells widely separated by fibrillar material and pools of lipid which appeared to be in the process of crystallization.

The advanced atherosclerotic lesions contained foam cells. Many of these cells were necrotic, and some were binucleated. Cholesterol and mineral were present in foam cells as well as in the extracellular spaces. Fibrillar-flocculent material was also present in these spaces.

The origin of foam cells and fibrillar-flocculent material in the advanced atheroma is also discussed.

A new phenolic ether (Su-13437, CIBA) which has been reported to be hypolipidemic in the rat has been given to 8 volunteer subjects for an 8-week period. A reduction in serum triglyceride and to a lesser extent cholesterol and phospholipid occurred in 7 of the 8 subjects.

The serum magnesium levels of 214 patients with coronary heart disease were significantly higher (P < 0.01) than in 54 control subjects. Correlations of serum magnesium with 10 CHD attributes or risk factors failed to show any significant association except for a negative association (P < 0.05) with glucose tolerance. The literature on serum magnesium levels in patients with coronary heart disease is briefly reviewed.

The antihistamine, chlorpheniramine, has been shown previously to inhibit cholesterol-induced rabbit atherosclerosis. The effect of chlorpheniramine has now been evaluated on the spontaneous atherosclerosis of uncastrated male minipigs.

Three groups of pigs of 10 each were started at age 3 months on a nutritionally adequate diet containing 30 % by weight of lard to which was added either 0, 0.5 or 1.0 mg of chlorpheniramine/kg body weight. The animals were killed and autopsied at age 24 months. The aortas were stained with Sudan IV and graded on a basis of 0-4 + in the arch and abdominal areas. Atherosclerosis involvement was small in all groups; there were no significant differences although the 1.0-mg chlorpheniramine group had the least atherosclerosis.

Chlorpheniramine appeared to increase the serum cholesterol levels while analysis of the fatty acid composition of the total serum lipids showed an increase in the percentage of 18:2 and decreases in 16:0 and 18:1.