Aortic, Serum, Connective Tissue and Osseous Chemistry in Lathyritic Rats

Abstract

IN several previous papers we have reviewed aspects of the pathogenesis of arterial lesions in man and in experimental animals with particular reference to the frequently reported increases in histochemically demonstrable material, taken by microscopists to be mucopolysaccharides^1–3. In an attempt to determine the significance of this particular finding in the pathogenesis of degeneratory arterial diseases we also studied the vascular lesions induced in rats by Lathyrus odoratus intoxication, in which mucopolysaccharide increases have been noted by several authors besides us^4–6. All these investigators considered the increases in mucopolysaccharides to be derived directly from increased rates of lysis of vascular components and/or depolymerization of aortic ground substance, attendant on Lathyrus intoxication. Our own view, based on histochemical and aortic growth studies, is that the lesions in lathyrism may perhaps be due to decreased synthesis of the elastin, and other components of vascular elastic membranes, associated with normal rates of lysis attendant on the growth of the rat's aorta during the period of maximal vascular sensitivity to the toxin^2,7.