動脈硬化症に関する実験的研究 第Ⅰ編 実験的動脈硬化症の大動脈に於ける病理解剖学的,組織化学的並びに偏光顕微鏡的所見

The actual cause of arteriosclerosis is unknown, but various theories are advanced from the results of experimental studies and pathological observations on the human body; and these theories may be roughly divided into two views. Namely, the one that considers the primary, regressive degeneration of the arterial wall to be the basic cause, and the other that contends the disturbances in the fat metabolism, especially in the caholesterol metabolism, to be the primary cause. Indeed experimental studies on the metabolic disturbances have contributed really to the clarification of the cause of this disease. Moreover, from the pathoanatomical and histological standpoints, there are cases of arteriosclerosis the causes of which seem to substantiate these two views. Actually in experiments these two can be induced in animals as different forms of arteriosclerosis, as for instance by the adrenalin injection or by the administration of cholesterols. However, it is still doubtful whether these really occur from fundamentally different mechanisms or not. With the purpose to elucidate this question the author conducted a series of experiments by injecting intravenously 1% cholesterol emulsion to a group of rabbits and by oral administrations of cholesterol to another group (which was subdivided into a group given a daily dosage of 0.25 g. for a long period of time and another group given 3 g. per day), using all together 17 rabbits, and observed changes in the aorta and various viscera. The findings on the aorta are decribed in the present paper. The author successfully induced the arteriosclerosis of atheroma-degerneration type in the rabbits receiving orally a small amount of cholesterol daily for a long time, and the arteriosclerosis of Monckeberg type in the group of rabbits injected with cholesterol emulsion or adminstered orally a large amount of cholesterol every day; and clarified that arteriosclerosis, what had been thought to be of entirely different types, can all develop on account of abnormalities in cholesterol metabolism. It seems that the former arteriosclerosis is mainly induced by the action of cholesterol-ester while the latter by the direct action of cholesterols.