@article{3049951,
    title = "Macrovascular disease of coronaries and cerebral arteries in
streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. A controlled, comparative study",
    author = "Mavrikakis, ME and Sfikakis, PP and Kontoyannis, D and Horti, M and and Kittas, C and Koutras, DA and Raptis, SA",
    journal = "Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes",
    year = "1998",
    volume = "106",
    number = "1",
    pages = "35-40",
    publisher = "JOHANN AMBROSIUS BARTH VERLAG MEDIZINVERLAGE HEIDELBERG GMBH",
    issn = "0947-7349, 1439-3646",
    doi = "10.1055/s-0029-1211947",
    keywords = "diabetes mellitus; vasculopathy; hyperglycemia; streptozotocin; rat",
    abstract = "The aim of this study was to demonstrate the macrovascular disease in
streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and assess any possible differences
between the histopatholological changes of the coronaries and cerebral
arteries. Hearts and brains were obtained after 4 weeks (short-term
experimental diabetes, 10 rats) and 12 weeks long-term experimental
diabetes, 10 rats) of streptozotocin injection. Sham injected, control
rats were studied in parallel. Muscular-type arteries of 0.10-0.15 mm
were examined and semiquantitatively classified either as normal, or
slightly, or moderately, or severely thickened by light microscopy:
While the arterial wall appeared normal in all sham-injected rats, a
varying degree of hyperplasia of the muscular layer and deposition of
fibrinoid material resulting in arterial stenosis was prominent in
streptozotocin-injected rats. In the group of short-term diabetes there
was a slight thickening of the cerebral arteries in the majority of the
rats (8/10 rats), while thickening of the coronaries was moderate (9/10
rats). Further progression of arterial wall thickening in both cerebral
and coronary arteries was observed in the long-term diabetic group. The
mean severity of lesions was significantly higher in the coronaries than
in cerebral arteries, both in the short-term (p < 0.0005) and long-term
diabetes (p < 0.02). Moreover, by paired statistics within individual
animals, we confirmed that wall thickening was significantly more severe
in coronaries than cerebral arteries in both groups. These findings
suggest an accelerated progress of macrovascular disease in the heart as
compared to the brain in the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat.
Although histopathological changes in humans do not always mirror
clinical severity, the differences in the macrovascular disease between
heart and brain in experimental diabetes may be relevant to the higher
relative risk of myocardial infarction compared to stroke for people
with diabetes, as compared to people without diabetes."
}