Establishment of a rabbit carotid atherosclerotic plaque rupture model

Objective To explore the effective method of establishing an animal model of carotid atherosclerotic plaque rupture. Methods Thirty male rabbits were randomly divided into group A(n=20 and group B（n=）.Rabbits in group A were fed with high fatty forage and injury of their carotids was induced by balloon and rabbits in group B were fed with high fatty forage.After 8 weeks,some rabbits were sacrificed and the morphological characteristics of pathological changes in carotids were observed.Plaque rupture was triggered in survived rabbits in group A and 5 survived rabbits in group B by local injection of liquid nitrogen into their carotids.After 3 days,all rabbits were sacrificed and the morphological characteristics of pathological changes in carotids were observed again.Before and 8 weeks after experiment and 3 days after liquid nitrogen injection,fasting blood samples were collected for high serum sensitive C-reactive protein（hs-CRP） and matrix metalloproteinases-9（MMP-9） assay. Results The typical pathological changes of atherosclerosis and plaque formation were found in 9 rabbits of group A,but not in those of group B.Three days after liquid nitrogen injection,plaque rupture and thrombosis occurred in all survived rabbits of group A and the incidence of plaque rupture was 100%.The plasma concentrations of hs-CRP and MMP-9 in group A were higher than in group B before liquid nitrogen injection（P＜0.001）. Conclusion A model of rabbit carotid atherosclerotic plaque rupture can be established by improved balloon injury and liquid nitrogen injection.