The Increased Severity of Atherosclerosis in Rabbits on a Lactose-Containing Diet

Abstract

Two separate series of rabbits of the New Zealand White strain were fed a 0.35% cholesterol-containing diet with either 29.35% sucrose or lactose as the carbohydrate for periods of 7 or 8 weeks. At all time intervals studied, the serum cholesterol levels of the lactose-fed groups were consistently higher than the corresponding values of the sucrose-fed controls. The total liver cholesterol concentration of the lactose-fed groups was more than double that of the sucrose-fed animals. The atherosclerosis score for lactose-fed rabits was 40.6% and 56.5% involvement in contrast to 11.8% and 11.5% for the sucrose-fed controls.