Preventive Effect Of N-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids In Cardiac Allograft Arteriosclerosis

Heart transplantation, as an only therapy in final heart disease, has developed quickly in the late 20 century and saved thousands of patients. Transplant Coronary Artery Disease (TCAD) remains a troublesome long term complication of heart transplantation. The rate of TCAD after transplantation is 1 % to 4% in the first year and 44% to 50% in the fifth years. About 10 to 20% of the heart transplantation patients died of the coronary artery disease. The rate of TCAD after transplantation is positive correlation with the heart transplantation recipient's survival time. The effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid in Coronary arteriosclerosis has been studied clearly, but it is still disputed in treating TCAD. This study is to establish an arterial homeotransplant model; carotid artery of SD rat was transplanted into carotid artery of Wistar rat. We fed the Wistar rat with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid respectively. After 1, 7, 14,21,28days after operation, the allograft artery was harvested and allograft artery pathologic histology was examined ,the criteria including the pathologic variations of the transplanted blood vessel under microscope and electron microscope,the variations of NF-kB, ICAM-1 &VCAM-1 expression in the transplanted blood vessel. And based on the results, the prevention effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in TCAD was analyzed. The study includes two parts.Part â… . Transplant Artery Disease in An Rodent ModelObjective:To establish an arterial homeotransplant model. Method: Carotid artery of SD rat was orthotopic transplanted into carotid artery of SD rat with microsurgical technique. Results: 80 cases of the model had been made and the succeed rate of the operation was 100%. The average operation time was 50 minutes and the anastomosis time of carotid artery was 20 minutes. Conclusion: There is no significant complication in establishing the allograft carotid arterial model of rat, which is suitable for the study of varieties of cardiovascular disease.Part â…¡. The preventive effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid in TCADObjective: To study the preventive effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid in TCAD. Method: The rat had been divided into four groups. Group A was the contrast group. Group B had been taken n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids two weeks before operation with the dose of EPA 600mg per kilogram. Group C had been taken 300 mg per kilogram. Group D had been taken 150mg per kilogram. The recipient's transplanted vessel had been excised after 1, 7,14,21,28 days respectively and the tissue pathological variations, the ultrastructure variations and the expression variations of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, NT-kB had been observed. Results: The pathological variations created after 1 week of the operation inGroup A. The variations were the most significant after 4 weeks, the lumen of vessel was mostly jammed and the expressions of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, NF-kB were the most intensity. The pathological variations of the transplanted vessel in Test Groups were later than those in the contrast group. The unobstructed rates of the Test Groups were better than the Contrast Group. The expressions of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, NF-kB in the Test Groups were weaker than those in the contrast group. The preventive effect for allograft vessel atheromatosis in Group B & Group C was stronger than those in Group D. There were no significant difference both Group B and Group C. Conclusion : The n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids can prevent the allograft vessel atheromatosis, the most effective dose of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid is 300 mg per kilogram.