[Effect of medicinal leech preparations on indicators of atherogenesis]

Medicinal leech salivary gland secretion, administered intravenously to rats on an atherogenic diet, reduces fibrinogen level and plasma heparin tolerance and diminishes lipid deposits in the intima of large vessels. Long-term chronic oral administration of dried medicinal leech powder to rats, kept on an atherogenic diet, reduces the area of local edema in the intima of large vessels, although blood lipid composition, fibrinogen level and plasma heparin tolerance remain basically unchanged, as compared to respective values in the control animals. The salivary gland secretion reduces the 3H-thymidine incorporation into the human atherosclerotic intimal cell culture.