Experimental Studies Of Rabbit Carotid Endarterrectomy Surgery To Repair The Artery Intima

Background:It is widely believed that atherosclerotic plaque rupture and subsequentthrombosis leads to acute coronary events and stroke. However, study of themechanism and treatment of human plaque rupture is hampered by lack of asuitable animal model. Our aim was to develop a novel animal model ofatherosclerotic plaque rupture to facilitate the study of human plaquedisruption and thrombosis.Methods:28healthy male New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided intotwo groups: rabbits in group A (n=12) were only fed a high-fat diet for eightweeks; rabbits in group B (n=16) underwent cold-induced endothelial injurywith liquid nitrogen, then were given a high-fat diet for eight weeks. Aftercompletion of the preparatory regimen, triggering of plaque rupture wasattempted by local injection of liquid nitrogen in both groups.Results:All rabbits in group B had disrupted plaques or rupture-driven occlusivethrombus formation, but none in group A showed any effects. More importantly,the cold-induced plaques in our model were reminiscent of humanatherosclerotic plaques in terms of architecture, cellular composition,growth characteristics, and patterns of lipid accumulation.Conclusion:We successfully developed a novel rabbit model of atherosclerotic plaquerupture and thrombosis, which is simple, fast, inexpensive, and reproducible, and has a low mortality and a high yield of triggering. This model will allow usto better understand the mechanism of human plaque rupture and also to developplaque-stabilizing therapies.