The von Willebrand Pig as a Model for Atherosclerosis Research

Abstract

The aortas of 11 pigs with homozygous von Willebrand’s disease (vWd) were compared with those of 11 normal pigs, all aged 1 to 3 years. Six of the controls exhibited multiple arteriosclerotic plaques over 2 mm. in diameter with intimal thickenings of 63 to 130 microns. In contrast, none of the vWd pigs had multiple plaques; one had a single lesion over 2 mm. in diameter.Ten additional pigs, 5 controls and 5 with homozygous vWd, were placed on a 2% cholesterol diet for 6 months, beginning at the age of 3 months. Four of the controls developed aortic arteriosclerotic lesions exceeding 7.5% of the entire surface. Intimal thickness ranged up to 370 microns. In contrast, 4 of the vWd pigs developed lesions not exceeding 0.5% of the aortic surface; the fifth vWd pig had arteriosclerotic lesions involving 7.3% of the aortic surface.The aortas of the vWd pigs did stain with Evans blue dye injected antemortem, and they exhibited fatty infiltration in the intima. By electron microscopy, severe endothelial damage was apparent, but there was no intimal proliferation.The vWd pig seems to be an ideal model for arteriosclerosis research and the possible relationship of our findings may be related to impaired platelet-arterial wall interaction in vWd.