SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN AORTAS AND CORONARY-ARTERIES OF SWINE WITH VON WILLEBRANDS DISEASE

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 102  (2) , 137-145
Abstract
The development of coronary and aortic atherosclerosis was determined after balloon catheter injury of coronary arteries and administration of an atherogenic diet in normal pigs and pigs that were homozygous and heterozygous for von Willebrand''s disease. Coronary atherosclerosis developed to a similar degree in all 3 phenotypic groups. The mean intimal thickness at the site of maximal thickness in ballooned vessels was 0.51 mm in the normal pigs, 0.67 mm in carrier pigs and 0.55 mm in bleeder pigs. The intimal thickness of nonballooned vessels was 0.28 mm in normal pigs, 0.28 mm in carrier pigs and 0.35 mm in bleeder pigs. Fibrous lesions of atherosclerosis covered an average of 3.88% of the aorta in normal pigs, 2.83% in carrier pigs and 2.37% in bleeder pigs. The difference between the aortic lesions of normal animals and bleeders was significant (P < 0.05). Absence of von Willebrand factor was associated with limited resistance to atherosclerosis in the aortas of experimental pigs but did not affect the development of atherosclerosis in either ballooned or nonballooned coronary arteries. Von Willebrand factor function apparently is not essential to the development of the atherosclerotic lesion in this model. The role of the von Willebrand factor in the development of atherosclerosis is complicated and appears to involve interaction with variables not yet defined.