Hypertension as an important factor for cerebrovascular atherogenesis in rats

A new model for studies on atherogenesis in the cerebrovascular system was obtained by using recently established stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP). SHRSP on a hypercholesterolemic diet (20% suet, 5% cholesterol, and 2% cholic acid) had ring-like fat deposits in the circle of Willis, which were detected within a few weeks by new techniques for the macroscopical demonstration of fat deposits "as a whole" and were proved to be good quantitative indices for the initiation of atherogenesis. Experimental studies using more than 200 rats including SHRSP, experimental hypertensive rats (renal infarction hypertension) and WK rats, fed a hypercholesterolemic diet with 1% salt in the drinking water for 1 week, 2 weeks, 10 weeks and more than 10 weeks, revealed that the arterial fat deposition in the brain was affected by BP, serum cholesterol level, strain difference and age. High BP was confirmed to be more important than the other factors by the quantitative analysis of sudanophilic rings in relation to BP.