A Biochemical Study of Spontaneous Atherosclerosis in Pigeons

Abstract

Two breeds of pigeons (White Carneau and Silver King) have been found to have a high incidence of spontaneous atheromatous lesions in the aorta, while two breeds of homing pigeons (Racing Homers and Show Racers) seemed to be resistant to atherosclerosis. The weight of the aorta, and its cholesterol content, paralleled the severity of the disease. The levels of serum cholesterol and phospholipids, and the cholesterol: phospholipid ratio, however, appear to be unrelated to the incidence and seventy of atherosclerosis in pigeons. The differences observed among the four breeds of birds showed little correlation with age, sex, diet, or physical activity.

Effects of Cholesterol-Fat Diets on Pigeons Susceptible and Resistant to Atherosclerosis

“…2 White Carneau pigeons were chosen as the atherosclerosis-susceptible breed, Racing Homers were chosen as the resistant breed, and Autosexing Kings were chosen as a breed thought to bo genetically intermediate. The family histories of these breeds of pigeons are pertinent to this From The Vivarium and Department of Biochemistry, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.…”

Benzo(a)pyrene enhances atherosclerosis in White Carneau and Show Racer pigeons.

“…Although no sex difference has been reported in the development of the naturally occurring or cholesterolaggravated disease in WC pigeons, 6 -7 the development of lesions in males and females may result from the interaction of different factors. The administration of BaP alters or provides another factor in females compared with males.…”

“…Differences between breeds in the susceptibility to the development of atherosclerosis cannot be explained by differences in known risk factors, including plasma cholesterol levels, lipoprotein distribution, or blood pressure. 6 In addition, the SR pigeon maintains its relative resistance to atherosclerosis compared with the WC pigeon even when the former is fed levels of cholesterol that are sufficiently large to cause radical yet similar changes in the physiochemical nature of lipoproteins in both strains of birds. 7 - 8 However, as with naturally occurring atherosclerosis, no difference in known risk factors could explain the breed differences in susceptibility to the disease in cholesterol-fed pigeons.…”

Influence of vascular smooth muscle heterogeneity on angiotensin converting enzyme activity in chicken embryonic aorta and in endothelial cells in culture.

“…Finally, the pellet was resuspended in complete medium and filtered through a nucleopore membrane (10 ,gm), and the cells were seeded into 100-mmdiameter dishes. Cells grew within [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] Figure 2). One-way ANOVA showed a significant difference in ACE activity between the two vessel regions (p<0.001, Table 1).…”

“…Intrinsically defined different properties of the smooth muscle cells might have important consequences: in the best-studied avian model of atherosclerosis, the White Carneau pigeon, the neural crest-derived vessels are the least susceptible to develop the disease, the mesenchyme-derived vessels are more susceptible, and the most susceptible regions coincide with sites identified as neural crest-mesenchyme interfaces. [40][41][42] In summary, we have demonstrated that the ACEmodulatory properties of smooth muscle vary with its ontogeny. Origin-independent factors related to the anatomic location of the vessel, e.g., shear stress,43 also influence tissue ACE activity directly, suggesting that the regulation of vascular ACE activity in vivo may result from a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.…”