The effects of changes in diet on lipid levels and platelet thrombus formation in living blood vessels.

The work reported here describes an in vivo study over several days in each animal, of the formation and behaviour of platelet thrombi in injured living blood vessels in response to topically applied adenosine diphosphate (ADP) in rabbits fed initially on normal diets, then on experimental "saturated" or "polyunsaturated" diets. The effects of these diets on triglyceride fatty acids and on cholesterol and triglyceride levels are reported. It may be of significance that in each experiment the "polyunsaturated" and "saturated" diets appeared to be associated with an increased sensitivity to ADP greater than observed in rabbits on a normal diet or in normal animals in other studies.