Change features of blood lipids in chronic psychological stress-induced atherosclerosis of rabbits and the mechanism

ZHAO Li; ZHANG Ming-ke; LIU Wen-li; ''LIU Yan; ZHAO Yu-xia

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2014.26.003

Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical features of atherosclerosis ( AS) induced by chronic psychological stress ( CPS) and the possible mechanism .Methods Totally 160 New Zealand male rabbits were randomly divided into 4 groups, 40 cases in each group:the control group (group C), CPS group, high cholesterol feed group (HCF group) and chronic stress plus high cholesterol feed group ( CPS+HCF group ) .Rabbits in the C and CPS groups were fed with stand-ard diet;HCF and CPS+HCF groups were fed with high-fat diet.Rabbits in the CPS and CPS+HCF groups underwent ro-tation, noise, panic, fasting and water stimulation to induce the psychological stress in order to prepare the AS models .The experiment lasted for 16 weeks.The concentrations of TC , TG, LDL-c, HDL-c and abdominal aorta of the rabbits stained by oil red O were examined before modeling and after 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks respectively .Results At week 4 and 8, the concentrations of TC, TG, LDL-c and HDL-c:CPS+HCF group >HCF group >CPS group (P<0.05).At the end of 12th and 16th weeks, the serum HDL-c level of group CPS decreased significantly as compared with that of group C (P<0.05), and the rest indexes increased significantly (P<0.05); the serum LDL-c level had no statistical difference be-tween the CPS and HCF groups (P>0.05), and the other indexes decreased significantly (P<0.05);the serum HDL-c level of group CPS+HCF significantly decreased as compared with that of group HCF (P<0.05), and the other indexes increased (P<0.05).The lipidoses in arterial wall of CPS +HCF group (after 4 weeks), HCF group (after 8 weeks) and CPS group (after 12 weeks) were observed.After 16 weeks, HCF group exhibited more lipidoses in arterial wall than CPS group and CPS+HCF group exhibited more lipidoses than HCF group ( all P<0.05) .Conclusion The features of blood lipids metabolic disorders of AS induced by CPS are different from that induced by HCF .CPS maybe contributes to AS by increasing LDL-c level and decreasing HDL-c level.