Introduction:

experimental animal models provide valuable information to understand the physiological and pathological processes of blood vessel injuries and their consequences.

Objective:

to analyze the histological and morphometric changes observed in the abdominal aorta of Wistar rats subjected to a hyperglycemic diet.

Methods:

two experimental groups of 10 animals each were randomly formed. The control group was fed with a standard diet for this species, and the experimental group was fed with a standard diet plus 35% sucrose, as drinking water from weaning to 20 weeks of life. The study was performed on aortic samples fixed and processed by the classic paraffin embedding technique and stained with the hematoxylin-eosin and Verhoeff techniques. The description of the layers of the arterial wall and the determination of morphometric variables in each histological slide were made.

Results:

the Wistar rats belonging to the experimental group developed incipient changes in the arterial wall of the abdominal aorta, which correspond to the presence of endothelial cell swelling and vacuolation in the vascular smooth muscle cell, as well as marked disorganization of the muscle and elastic fibers of the middle layer. The morphometric variables that showed significant differences between the groups were the thickness of the tunica media and the media/lumen ratio.

Conclusions:

the middle wall turned out to be the most affected layer, demonstrating the harmful effect of the hyperglycemic diet on the arterial wall.