Cholesteryl ester-rich inclusions from human aortic fatty streak and fibrous plaque lesions of atherosclerosis. I. Crystalline properties, size and internal structure.

  • 1 June 1974
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 75  (3) , 423-56
Abstract
Cholesteryl esters, the major lipid in the lesions of human atherosclerosis, occurred in fatty streaks and fibrous plaques from 42 adults as spherical inclusions whose diameters averaged 1.99 +/- 0.48 and 2.16 +/- 0.62 mu, respectively, and which with polarizing light microscopy resolved into a mixture of various proportions of anisotropic and isotropic forms. Anisotropic forms had diameters of 1.9 +/- 0.4 mu, uniaxial-like symmetry with a formée cross image, a whitish gray interference color under cross polarizer and analyzer, second order blue and first order yellow interference colors with a tint plate, a birefringence of 0.0412 +/- 0.0054 and a refractive index of 1.559 +/- 0.0014. Their probable structural organization is primarily a lyotropic smectic mesophase (liquid crystal) of cholesteryl esters secondarily organized into multiple concentric lamellae. Isotropic forms had diameters of 2.3 +/- 0.6 mu and were optically inactive irrespective of their orientation. At 23 C, fatty streak inclusions from 21 subjects averaged significantly higher in the proportion of anisotropic forms, 85.5 +/- 9.3%, than did fibrous plaque inclusions from 21 subjects, which had 32.4 +/- 16.3% anisotropic forms (P < 0.01).