Aortic and renal lesions in hypercholesterolemic adult, male, virgin sprague-dawley rats.

Male, virgin Sprague-Dawley rats received for periods of from 2 to 80 weeks 1 of the 3 following diets: Commercial rat chow (control diet), commercial rat chow supplemented with cholesterol (cholesterol diet) or commercial rat chow supplemented with cholic acid and taurine in equimolar amounts (cholic acid diet). Plasma cholesterol concentration was elevated in all rats kept on the cholesterol or on the cholic acid diets. Three of 8 rats kept on the control diet also developed hypercholesterolemia 80 weeks after beginning the experiment. Intimal plaques in the aorta and glomerulosclerosis were observed in all rats with plasma cholesterol concentrations above 150 mg/100 ml, including the three hypercholesterolemic controls. Cholesterol concentrations in the aorta and kidneys of the rats with these lesions were not increased above the control values while hypercholesterolemia was common to all the rats with these lesions regardless of the type of the diet.