Animal Models of Atherosclerosis and/or Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Many species exhibit spontaneous arterial disease of the aorta and coronary arteries (Clarkson, 1972) and these provide useful models for study. Among the species which are of special interest are the carneau pigeon, chicken and turkey; many types of primates (Stout and Lemmon, 1969; Lehner et al., 1971) and pigs (Ratcliffe and Luginbuhl, 1971). Whilst animals with spontaneous disease provide valuable material for biochemical and pathological study, they are often of limited use for an investigation of numerous factors which may aggravate or ameliorate the disease such as diet, hormones, exercise. The reason for this is that the extent and incidence of lesions between individual animals is often extremely varialbe, requiring large numbers for statistical analysis.