Early morphologic changes in coronary arteries of experimental diabetic rats.

Diabetes was induced in 24 adult male Wistar rats by a single intravenous injection of streptozotocin. The ultramorphology of the coronary arterial wall was studied by scanning and transmission electron microscopy up to 10 weeks following this diabetes induction. At that moment, several ultrastructural characteristics of primary atherogenesis could be observed, i.e. important myointimal thickening with extensive medial smooth muscle cell migration towards and into the intima, and synthesis of an abundant mass of intercellular ground substance in the media and in subendothelial areas. Lipid deposition or foam cell formation was not observed. These results confirm that experimental diabetes is a risk factor for the coronary arterial wall as it induces typical atherogenic phenomena.