Diet-induced hypertension and cardiovascular lesions in mice.

The effects on the coronary arteries of feeding a normal diet to mice previously fed a high-fat diet have been described.' Following the first week of "recovery" (feeding a normal diet) there was a high incidence of medial hyalinization and a mural and perivascular infiltration of inflammatory cells. After two and three weeks of recovery a perivascular fibrosis and subendothelial hyperplasia of smooth muscle had developed. Medial circular smooth muscle was also hyperplastic. These lesions resemble those of experimentally induced hypertension.' Previous studies have shown that the arterial system of mice is relatively resistant to damage produced by atypical diets.' In the coronary arteries of mice restricted to the high-fat diet for as long as 78 weeks, lesions were limited in severity and incidence.l"' Arterial lesions of rabbits fed an atherogenic diet are enhanced when the animals are returned to a normal diet.7" In swine and dogs, alternating periods of starvation and refeeding produce hypertension and mural vascular lesions."' This report considers the relationship between hypertension and the arterial lesions produced in mice fed a normal diet following seven weeks of restriction to a high-fat, hypolipotropic diet.