[Effect of pyridinol carbamate on long-term lathyrism and experimental atheroma in the rat. Histological and biochemical study].

Three-week-old rats were fed with Beta-aminopropionitrile (BAPN) with a normal or hyperlipidic diet. After a few weeks BAPN induced aortic elastic fibres disruption which as not worsened when the treatment was continued up the seven months. Adding a hyperlipidic diet produced atherosclerotic-like lesions. Pretreatment with Pyridinol Carbamate (PDC) whichever the diet used did not modify serum of aortic cholesterol levels. It decreased the severity of aortic lesions and delayed the onset of less severe atheromatous lesions. It seems that PDC increased the free/esterified aortic cholesterol ratio resulting in a better elimination of the aortic cholesterol.