Abstract
Sequence of pathological events provoked in the arterial system of rats after a short term loading with a mixture of massive doses of vitamin D2 and cholesterol was followed for a period of up to three months. At one month and thereafter following the treatment, PAS-positive polysaccharides were additionally deposited in the necrotic aortic media with calcareous and lipid deposition. Circumscriptive proliferative changes in the aorta became prominent two or three months following the treatment in the intima and media, where heavily calcified and hardened elastic membranes had almost invariably ruptured. No lipid deposition or appearance of so-called foamy cells was found even in the intimal lesions. It seems, therefore, that atheromatous lesions could not be produced in the aorta by the present experimental procedure. On the other hand, the large-sized main branches of the coronary artery and the mesenteric artery exhibited proliferative changes fulfilling the histopathological criteria of intimal hyperplasia-type arteriosclerosis at one month and thereafter following the treatment.
