Marine lipid concentrate and atherosclerosis in the rabbit model

Twenty-seven New Zealand white rabbits underwent balloon de-endothelialization of the aorta and iliac arteries while consuming a 2% cholesterol, 10% peanut oil rabbit chow. Ten of these rabbits were fed 1 ml of concentrated marine fish lipid (MaxEpaTm) daily. Six weeks after de-endothelialization, angiography of the treated arteries was performed and histologic cross-sections of the terminal aorta were measured with a planimeter. Iliac artery luminal diameters were also measured at consecutive 3-mm divisions from the aortic bifurcation and found to have a mean lumen diameter of 1.60 +/- 0.08 mm in the marine lipid-supplemented group (M) and 1.38 +/- 0.12 mm in the control group (C) (P less than 0.001). Analysis of variance on individual segmental diameters confirmed this difference. However, neither the angiographic diameters nor histologic, cross-sectional, luminal areas of the terminal aorta were different between groups. Instead, the mean cross-sectional area of the terminal aortic wall was significantly greater in the marine lipid-fed group (4.4 +/- 1.2 mm2 in M and 3.1 +/- 0.6 mm2 in C, P less than 0.01). In addition, the vessel wall area showed a positive correlation with red blood cell (RBC) incorporation of docosahexaenoic acid (r = 0.82, P less than 0.005) in both groups. In the M group, RBC eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acids increased 100% and 650%, respectively, over baseline.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)