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Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a diffuse and highly variable disease of arteries that alters the mechanical properties of the vessel wall through highly variable changes in its cellular composition and histological structure. We have analyzed the effects of acute atherosclerotic changes on the mecha...

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Autores principales: Koniari, Ioanna, Mavrilas, Dimosthenis, Papadaki, Helen, Karanikolas, Menelaos, Mandellou, Martha, Papalois, Apostolos, Koletsis, Efstratios, Dougenis, Dimitrios, Apostolakis, Efstratios
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21791107
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-511X-10-125
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author Koniari, Ioanna
Mavrilas, Dimosthenis
Papadaki, Helen
Karanikolas, Menelaos
Mandellou, Martha
Papalois, Apostolos
Koletsis, Efstratios
Dougenis, Dimitrios
Apostolakis, Efstratios
author_facet Koniari, Ioanna
Mavrilas, Dimosthenis
Papadaki, Helen
Karanikolas, Menelaos
Mandellou, Martha
Papalois, Apostolos
Koletsis, Efstratios
Dougenis, Dimitrios
Apostolakis, Efstratios
author_sort Koniari, Ioanna
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a diffuse and highly variable disease of arteries that alters the mechanical properties of the vessel wall through highly variable changes in its cellular composition and histological structure. We have analyzed the effects of acute atherosclerotic changes on the mechanical properties of the descending thoracic aorta of rabbits fed a 4% cholesterol diet. METHODS: Two groups of eight male New Zealand White rabbits were randomly selected and fed for 8 weeks either an atherogenic diet (4% cholesterol plus regular rabbit chow), or regular chow. Animals were sacrificed after 8 weeks, and the descending thoracic aortas were excised for pressure-diameter tests and histological evaluation to examine the relationship between aortic elastic properties and atherosclerotic lesions. RESULTS: All rabbits fed the high-cholesterol diet developed either intermediate or advanced atherosclerotic lesions, particularly American Heart Association-type III and IV, which were fatty and contained abundant lipid-filled foam cells (RAM 11-positive cells) and fewer SMCs with solid-like actin staining (HHF-35-positive cells). In contrast, rabbits fed a normal diet had no visible atherosclerotic changes. The atherosclerotic lesions correlated with a statistically significant decrease in mean vessel wall stiffness in the cholesterol-fed rabbits (51.52 ± 8.76 kPa) compared to the control animals (68.98 ± 11.98 kPa), especially in rabbits with more progressive disease. CONCLUSIONS: Notably, stiffness appears to decrease with the progression of atherosclerosis after the 8-week period.
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spelling pubmed-31603712011-08-24 Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis Koniari, Ioanna Mavrilas, Dimosthenis Papadaki, Helen Karanikolas, Menelaos Mandellou, Martha Papalois, Apostolos Koletsis, Efstratios Dougenis, Dimitrios Apostolakis, Efstratios Lipids Health Dis Research BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a diffuse and highly variable disease of arteries that alters the mechanical properties of the vessel wall through highly variable changes in its cellular composition and histological structure. We have analyzed the effects of acute atherosclerotic changes on the mechanical properties of the descending thoracic aorta of rabbits fed a 4% cholesterol diet. METHODS: Two groups of eight male New Zealand White rabbits were randomly selected and fed for 8 weeks either an atherogenic diet (4% cholesterol plus regular rabbit chow), or regular chow. Animals were sacrificed after 8 weeks, and the descending thoracic aortas were excised for pressure-diameter tests and histological evaluation to examine the relationship between aortic elastic properties and atherosclerotic lesions. RESULTS: All rabbits fed the high-cholesterol diet developed either intermediate or advanced atherosclerotic lesions, particularly American Heart Association-type III and IV, which were fatty and contained abundant lipid-filled foam cells (RAM 11-positive cells) and fewer SMCs with solid-like actin staining (HHF-35-positive cells). In contrast, rabbits fed a normal diet had no visible atherosclerotic changes. The atherosclerotic lesions correlated with a statistically significant decrease in mean vessel wall stiffness in the cholesterol-fed rabbits (51.52 ± 8.76 kPa) compared to the control animals (68.98 ± 11.98 kPa), especially in rabbits with more progressive disease. CONCLUSIONS: Notably, stiffness appears to decrease with the progression of atherosclerosis after the 8-week period. BioMed Central 2011-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3160371/ /pubmed/21791107 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-511X-10-125 Text en Copyright ©2011 Koniari et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Koniari, Ioanna
Mavrilas, Dimosthenis
Papadaki, Helen
Karanikolas, Menelaos
Mandellou, Martha
Papalois, Apostolos
Koletsis, Efstratios
Dougenis, Dimitrios
Apostolakis, Efstratios
Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis
title Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis
title_full Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis
title_fullStr Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis
title_full_unstemmed Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis
title_short Structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis
title_sort structural and biomechanical alterations in rabbit thoracic aortas are associated with the progression of atherosclerosis
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21791107
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-511X-10-125
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