On the Role of Fatty Acid Peroxides in Atherogenesis.

It has been considered that a great deal of factors are concerned with pathogenesis. Aging is intimately involved with atherogenesis. There are many theories of aging mechanism, one of which is free radical theory. Auto-oxidation of fatty acid proceeds by a free-radical mechanism with formation of peroxides. X-ray irradiation, that is known to shorten lifespan, accelerates the peroxidation. Tocopherol, ascorbic acid and glutathione are the most important antioxidants. Many enzymes of various types, e.g. SH-enzymes, have been found to be inhibited by fatty acid peroxides. Fatty acid peroxides were found in atherosclerotic human aorta by Glavind. We, also, extracted peroxides from experimental atheroma. It has been generally agreed that the metabolism of aorta is impaired in the initial stage of atherosclerosis. It may be inferred that the presence of peroxides in the aorta causes a decrease in respiration of aorta by the inhibition of oxidative enzymes. Investigation in our laboratory revealed that respiration of aorta from rats fed with peroxides is lowered. From the above findings, we assumed that the peroxides play an important role in the initial stage of atherogenesis.