Resumo

HERRERA BATISTA, Aleida; LEBREDO ALVAREZ, Isis  e  ROJAS RAMIREZ, Liana Yanet. Fatty streaks in-ethanol and hypercholesterolemic diet- treated male rabbit´s aorta. Rev Cubana Invest Bioméd [online]. 2009, vol.28, n.2. ISSN 0864-0300.

ects of ethanol on the histological characteristics of ethanol- and hypercholesterolemic diet-treated rabbits´ aorta were determined to evaluate the possible protective effect of this element on atherosclerosis. Twenty male rabbits were used for 100 days, divided into 4 groups: the first treated with ethanol, the second with hypercholesterolemic diet, the third with both ethanol and hypercholesterolemic diet, and a control group. The experiment lasted 16 weeks. The histological techniques were Sudan IV, Hematoxillin, Eosin, Orcein, Picro-Ponceau and Mallory´s Tricrómica. The animals under hypercholesterolemic diet showed denudation of the endothelium with moderate tumefaction in endothelial cells, foaming cells in the subendothelium and extracellular aggregates of lipids and moderate lymphocytic infiltrate. The rabbits subjected to ethanol and diet presented with more extensive alterations, larger endothelial denudation areas, endothelial cells with intense tumefaction, very thickened subendothelium with big foaming cells, extensive extracellular lipid areas and lymphocytic infiltrate, abundant collagen fibers, and internal elastic plates with signs of fragmentation. These results revealed that ethanol does not have any protective effect, at least at the doses and under the conditions used in this study.

Palavras-chave : Adolescence; alcoholism; atherosclerosis; hypercholesterolemic diet.