Atherosclerosis and acute arterial thrombosis in rabbits: a model using balloon desendothelization without dietary intervention

Abstract

Acute thrombosis can be induced in rabbits by a triggering protocol using Russell's viper venom and histamine given after 8 months of a 1% cholesterol diet and balloon desendothelization. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that aortic desendothelization performed 4 months before the triggering protocol without a high cholesterol diet is a highly effective and less expensive way of producing arterial atherosclerosis and thrombosis. Nineteen male New Zealand white rabbits on a normal diet were studied. The control group (N = 9) received no intervention during the 4-month observation period, while the other group (N = 10) was submitted to aortic balloon desendothelization using a 4F Fogarty catheter. At the end of this period, all animals were killed 48 h after receiving the first dose of the triggering treatment. Eight of 10 rabbits (80%) in the balloon-trauma group presented platelet-rich arterial thrombosis while none of the animals in the control group had thrombus formation (P<0.01). Thus, this model, using balloon desendothelization without dietary manipulation, induces arterial atherosclerosis and thrombosis and may provide possibilities to test new therapeutic approaches.Correspondence

Short-Term Tissue Response of Lapine Carotid Artery Microanastomoses to BioGlue®

“…The area of endothelial damage in the control group (GC) was also limited to the region of the glue. Therefore, the cell damage could not have been caused by the balloon catheter technique but had to be due to the focal reaction, previously reported in association with adhesives [4,6,10]. Our short-term study showed an increasing inflammatory reaction over the 3-day postoperative period.…”

“…The gap was most likely the reason for thrombus formation, as neither the anastomoses without a gap nor the glue control group (GC) developed a thrombus. Another possible explanation for thrombus formation could be the balloon catheter, which resulted in platelet-rich arterial thrombus formation in the studies by Picon et al [6] and Tepe et al [9]. However, we selected the length of the balloon to exceed the area to which the glue was applied and identified the endothelial damage only over the length of the applied glue.…”

Multiple Thrombotic Occlusions of Vessels after Russell's Viper Envenoming

“…Russell's viper venom in a dose of only 150 μg/kg of body weight combined with histamine, an arterial vasoconstrictor in rabbits, can induce significant arterial thrombosis in rabbits withdamaged/atherosclerotic arteries. In these studies, the Russell's viper venom was used as a procoagulant and endothelial toxin, and endothelial injury plays a central role in these processes (Picon et al 1997). According to a study by Liau (1991), the average venom amount of a D.r.…”

Optical Detection of Triggered Atherosclerotic Plaque Disruption by Fluorescence Emission Analysis¶

“…RVV and intravenous histamine were used to produce plaque disruption and thrombosis in cholesterol fed rabbits after angioplasty injury. Recently, a variant of this model, using RVV alone without dietary intervention, has also been proposed (39) and aortic medial necrosis in the RVV rabbit model has, in addition, been the subject of a very recent study (40) assessing possible mechanisms of RVV-triggered arterial thrombosis. Our observations correlated well with the observations of Abela et al (31) and Constantinides and Chakravarti (30), demonstrating increased local foam cell invasion and intimal thrombosis in RVV and histamine-treated cholesterol fed rabbits.…”

“…Serp-1 was purified from a recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cell line (Biogen, Inc., London, Canada) by affinity chromatography using linked monoclonal antibody (AXB7.9, courtesy of Dr. L. Ling, Biogen, Inc.) as previously described (29). The concentration of purified Serp-1 was determined by absorbance at 280 nM using a molar extinction coefficient of 32 700 M Ϫ1 /cm (37)(38)(39)(40)(41).…”