Experimental induction of atherosclerosis associated with femoral arteriovenous fistulae in rabbits on a stock diet.

Chronic femoral arteriovenous fistulae were surgically produced in stock-fed rabbits. The aortic bifurcation and branching sites of the ilio-femoral arteries from each side were examined histologically by the serial section technique in rabbits killed at varying times from 121 to 800 days postoperatively. Similar preparations were examined from old multiparous breeding does and rabbits with a control femoral arteriotomy. Tears of the internal elastic lamina were prominent in the abdominal aorta and homolateral ilio-femoral arteries of those with fistulae but were only occasional and sporadic in contralateral arteries and control animals. Intimal proliferation at branching sites proximal to the fistula exhibited varying degrees of enlargement, extension and progression to overt atherosclerosis with lipid accumulation, fibrin deposition and calcification. Such changes were minimal proximally in contralateral vessels of a few rabbits and non-existent in control material. These results (i) constitute the first experimental induction of the progression of intimal proliferation to overt atherosclerosis at branching sites in stock-fed animals and (ii) substantiate the importance of haemodynamics in atherogenesis.