The influence of neural regulation of the liver on experimental atherosclerosis

Summary The author studied the effect of liver denervation on the lipid metabolism and the intensity of anatomical changes in rabbit aortas during cholesterol administration. Animals in which laparatomy was performed under the same conditions as denervation served as controls. Some animals received cholesterol in sunflower-seed oil, others — mixed with vegetables. Some tendency to intensification of the usual changes occurring in the lipid metabolism following alimentary cholesterol load was detected in animals after liver denervation when cholesterol was administered in sunflower-seed oil. Liver denervation considerably inhibited the development of anatomical changes in the aorta irrespective of the method of cholesterol administration. The mechanism of this inhibitory effect is still obscure. Additional histological investigations of A. E. Seranova have demonstrated destruction of only individual nervous fibers. Leucocytic infiltration is seen in the connective tissue of the porta hepatis, vascular adventitia and around the nerve stems; hypertophy of the fibroblastic elements is noted in the epineurium of the nerve stems with proliferation and hypertrophy of the Schwann cells.It may be suggested that inhibition of experimental atherosclerosis in the aforementioned experiments depended mainly on the stimulation of the nervous conductors of the liver.(Presented by Academician V. N. Chernigovskii) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 48–51, April, 1961