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The Effect of Prolonged Injection of Ethionine on Rabbits and Guinea Pigs on a High Cholesterol Diet

V. Comparison of Complement Titers with Other Findings

From the Animal Diseases Research Institute, Canada Department of Agriculture, Hull, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

The complement titers, protein and lipid values of the serum, and the pathologic findings were compared in ethionine-injected and untreated rabbits and guinea pigs on cholesterol-supplemented or stock diets. All of the ethionine-injected rabbits when sacrificed after 7–24 week's treatment showed some degree of pathologic change in the liver and kidney or both; in some, other organs as well were affected. Atheromatous lesions in the aorta and vessels of the heart were found in all rabbits that had been on the high-cholesterol diet for periods of 14–24 weeks, their location and extent was similar in the ethionine-treated and control animals. No such lesions were observed in any of the guinea pigs on the cholesterol-supplemented diet, although there was a marked accumulation of lipid in the liver, pancreas and other organs.

The complement titers and total protein content of the serum of the untreated rabbits on the high cholesterol diet tended to be higher than those of the untreated controls on the stock diet; this difference was not observed in the corresponding groups of guinea pigs. Complement titers fell and remained low in both dietary groups of rabbits and guinea pigs during the period of ethionine treatment; in rabbits the total serum protein values were depressed initially but later rose to normal levels; prolonged ethionine treatment had no apparent effect upon the hyperlipemia developing in cholesterol-fed rabbits, but in guinea pigs on the same diet an initial rise in serum lipids was followed by a decline during ensuing months of ethionine injection.

The basic mechanisms underlying these changes observed in ethionine-injected animals are discussed briefly from the physiologic and immunologic standpoint.