Division of Vascular and Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, 06591, Korea.
Division of Vascular and Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, 56 Dongsu-ro, Bupyong-Gu, Incheon, 21431, Korea.
J Cardiothorac Surg. 2021 Dec 27;16(1):352. doi: 10.1186/s13019-021-01734-1.
Inflammation is recognized as a critical process in expansion of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). A relationship between effects of cholesterol and statin in this process have been suggested, but remain untested. Therefore, current study aimed to examine the effects of hypercholesterolism on expansion of AAA in a rat model.
A total of 16 male rats were divided into 4 groups as follows: group I, normocholesterol diet and saline infusion, group II, normocholesterol diet and porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE) infusion, group III, hypercholesterol diet and PPE infusion, and group IV, hypercholesterol diet, PPE infusion and statin administration. At the 3rd week, saline was infused intraluminally in group I and PPE in groups II-IV to induce AAA. At the 5th week, blood and aortic tissue were obtained from each rat for evaluation of lipid profiles, aortic diameters (ADs), and characteristics of stains.
Post-procedural aortic diameter (AD3) and AD3/pre-procedural aortic diameter (AD1) were significantly different among four groups (P = 0.042, P = 0.028, respectively). AD3 was significantly larger in group II than group I, and group III than group IV (P = 0.012, P = 0.043, respectively). AD3/AD1 was significantly higher in group II than group I, and group III than group II (P = 0.008, P = 0.030, respectively). Group III showed the highest cellularity for inflammatory cells.
Though larger experimental and clinical studies are necessary, authors suggest that hypercholesterolism can aggravate expansion of AAA, and that statin therapy can reduce it. Therefore, monitoring for hypercholesterolism and instituting statin therapy may be helpful to suppress expansion of AAA.
炎症被认为是腹主动脉瘤（AAA）扩张的关键过程。已经有人提出胆固醇和他汀类药物在这一过程中的作用之间存在关系，但尚未得到验证。因此，本研究旨在通过大鼠模型研究高胆固醇血症对 AAA 扩张的影响。
将 16 只雄性大鼠分为 4 组：I 组，正常胆固醇饮食和生理盐水输注；II 组，正常胆固醇饮食和猪胰弹性蛋白酶（PPE）输注；III 组，高胆固醇饮食和 PPE 输注；IV 组，高胆固醇饮食、PPE 输注和他汀类药物给药。第 3 周时，I 组大鼠腔内输注生理盐水，II-IV 组大鼠腔内输注 PPE，以诱导 AAA。第 5 周时，从每组大鼠中抽取血液和主动脉组织，以评估血脂谱、主动脉直径（AD）和染色特征。
四组大鼠术后主动脉直径（AD3）和 AD3/术前主动脉直径（AD1）差异有统计学意义（P=0.042，P=0.028）。与 I 组相比，II 组和 III 组 AD3 显著增大（P=0.012，P=0.043）。与 I 组相比，II 组和 III 组 AD3/AD1 显著升高（P=0.008，P=0.030）。III 组炎性细胞的细胞数最高。
尽管需要更大的实验和临床研究，但作者认为高胆固醇血症可加重 AAA 的扩张，他汀类药物治疗可减轻 AAA 的扩张。因此，监测高胆固醇血症并进行他汀类药物治疗可能有助于抑制 AAA 的扩张。
