Studies on the relation of diet, cholesterol and atheroma in chickens.

In this study cockerels were fed varying diets supplemented with lard, vegetable oil, and cholesterol. The degree of atherosclerosis was compared in serial autopsies and only the cholesterol-fed group showed a significant difference. During a period of two years there was no apparent change in the degree of atheroma when the diet was supplemented with cottonseed oil or lard. Reversibil-ity of the cholesterol-induced atheroma was also studied in a few chickens, and it appears that the early lesions may undergo considerable regression after cholesterol feeding is stopped. Older lesions, on the other hand, appear to be quite fixed. T HE SPONTANEOUS development of atherosclerosis in domestic chickens is well recognized and the vascular lesions have been compared closely with atheromatous changes in man.' The significance of such le-sions, occurring spontaneously and after cholesterol feeding in an omnivorous animal such as the chicken, has been emphasized by Dauber and Katz.2 Though both rabbits and fowl appear to develop atheromatosis more readily when the added cholesterol is dissolved in some oil, it has been shown in chickens that cottonseed oil alone will not produce such lesions.3 While the atheroma-producing effects of various diets have been attributed to some slight cholesterol content, it is now known that in rabbits the