Association of plasma intermediate density lipoproteins with atherogenic intimal proliferative activity in abdominal aortas of hyperlipidemic swine.

In an earlier study of swine fed hyperlipidemic (HL) diets containing either butter or corn oil we found wide differences in atherogenic intimal proliferative responses among the swine, especially in the corn oil group, that could not be entirely accounted for by differences in serum cholesterol levels. We hypothesized that there might be differences in some lipoprotein constituents other than total cholesterol that might better account for the differences in intimal proliferative responses. In the current experiment, 11 swine were fed HL diets containing butter (n = 5) or corn oil (n = 6). At 90 days on HL diet, plasma was obtained for lipoprotein fractionation. At 120 days the swine were killed and the lesion areas and number of nuclear profiles in the intima or lesions in multiple cross-sections of the distal abdominal aorta were determined under light microscopy. Tritiated thymidine labeling indices of the intima or lesion cells were also determined. On comparing the butter and corn oil groups, only IDL-cholesterol and tritiated thymidine labeling indices of the cells in the lesions were significantly different. Based on the number of nuclear profiles per cross-section (Np/Cx) 7 were classified as high intimal proliferative responders (5 butter, 2 corn oil) and 4 as low responders (4 corn oil). The high-proliferative responders had plasma IDL levels 6-fold greater than those of the low responders with no overlaps. LDL, VLDL and HDL were not significantly different between the high- and low-proliferative responders. Among correlation coefficients between Np/Cx and plasma lipoprotein variables for all swine (n = 11), IDL cholesterol level was best correlated with Np/Cx. However, in the high responder group LDL values showed a highly significant correlation with the amount of intimal proliferation.