Clinico pathological evaluation of diet induced hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis in Wistar rats

Hyperlipidemia is the disorder of lipid metabolism, characterized by elevated serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), very low density lipoproteins cholesterol (VLDL-C) and decreased high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). The present study was carried out by procuring 24 male Wistar rats, divided into two groups consisting of 12 rats in each group. Hyperlipidemia was induced by addition of 1% cholesterol and 15% saturated oil to the 1000g of standard rat diet and given to group II rats. Group I kept as control. Six rats were randomly selected from each group and sacrificed on 45th days apart. Group II rats clinically showed obesity with significant increase (P<0.05) in the body weight. TC, TG, LDL-C, VLDL-C were significantly (P<0.05) higher, whereas HDL-C was significantly (P<0.05) reduced. Oxidative enzymes catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), reduced glutathione (GR) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced, whereas lipid peroxidation products of thiobrarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) level was non-significantly (p < 0.05) increased in liver and heart tissues of group II rats. Clinico pathological parameters like total erythrocyte count (TEC), packed cell volume (PCV) and hemoglobin (Hb%) were normal and non-significant (P < 0.05) in both the groups, where as total leukocyte count (TLC) in group II was non significantly (p < 0.05) higher when compared to group I. Hepatic steatosis, initiated atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta is the main histopathological feature in group II rats.