Hypertension, thrombosis, and atherosclerosis in the rat

A simple high fat diet containing cholic acid has been devised for producing hyperlipemia and an increased incidence of thrombosis in the small coronary vessels of the rat, but without producing significant atherosclerotic lesions. The influence on this syndrome induced by six weeks of desoxycorticosterone administration, 2 mg. daily, and 10 weeks of oral saline (1%) ingestion was investigated in 30 115-g. male rats. Marked hypertension developed only when it was induced prior to beginning the dietary feeding. In comparison to the control groups, the group that was both hyperlipemic and hypertensive had severer hypertension, severer hyperlipemia, double the mortality due to thrombosis and fatty streaks in the aorta but very few lesions of periarteritis nodosa. However, the early atherosclerotic lesions did not seem to be responsible for the increased production of thrombosis. It is therefore probable that under these experimental conditions hypertension has a more direct action on the production of thrombotic effect than that of worsening the atherosclerotic lesions.