Establishment of Rabbit Abdominal Aortic Atherosclerosis Model by Pancreatic Elastase Infiltration Associated with High Fat Diet.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a high fat diet (HFD) associated with pancreatic elastase (PE) infiltration, in establishing the rabbit aortic atherosclerosis model.

Methods: The HFD+PE method and the HFD+saccule injury (SI) method were simultaneously used to prepare the rabbit atherosclerosis model; the control group was established with the normal diet. Biochemical indicators, radiological imaging, pathomorphology and immunohistochemistry were used to evaluate the HFD+PE modeling results.

Results: There were significant changes in the blood lipid contents, as well as the pathomorphological and immunohistochemical results between the two experimental groups and the control group (p < 0.05). However, there was no difference between the two experimental groups. The rabbit aortic atherosclerosis model prepared by the HFD+PE method had no significant difference in the local vascular pathomorphological and immunohistochemical results with the traditional HFD+SI method.

Conclusions: The use of HFD with PE infiltration is feasible in establishing the rabbit aortic atherosclerosis model.

Key Words: Animal model; Atherosclerosis; Rabbit.