Modifications of Diets Responsible for Induction of Coronary Thromboses and Myocardial Infarcts in Rats

Abstract

The dietary production of experimental arterial thrombosis, with resultant myocardial and renal infarction, has been accomplished in 6 separate experiments. In each experiment approximately one-fifth of the animals on the “basal thrombogenic diet” surviving two months developed infarcts. Although 38 modifications of the basal thrombogenic diet have been fed to separate groups of rats, none has resulted in a clearly higher percentage of infarcts than that obtained with the basal diet. In individual dietary groups no appreciable differences in longevity, within the experimental period, or serum cholesterol levels have been noted between the rats with and without infarcts. Of the many dietary constituents omitted, none was found to be absolutely essential to the development of infarcts, but omission of any of the important ingredients (propylthiouracil, sodium cholate, cholesterol and fat) lowered the incidence of infarcts. The areas of infarction in these rats are grossly visible, well circumscribed, almost always single, and often associated with thrombi in the supplying artery. These infarcts are to be distinguished from “metabolic” areas of necrosis or “infarctoid” lesions obtained in other experimental models of myocardial disease.