Dietary Animal Models for Studying Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

Abstract

Although the significance of Yudkin’s (1972) observation relating morbidity from coronary heart disease (CHD) to excessive intake of dietary sucrose remains controversial, the metabolic effects of sucrose on CHD risk factor variables such as serum lipids, glucose and insulin are well recognized. We observed that the average intake of sucrose in Bogalusa children constituted 50% of the total carbohydrate (Frank et al. 1978). It is also generally accepted that excessive salt intake is an etiologic factor in the development of hypertension, another major CHD risk factor. In rats dietary sucrose has been shown to potentiate salt induced hypertension (Hall and Hall 1966). While manipulation of dietary fat and cholesterol continues to be extensively applied in experimental atherosclerosis, only a few studies have been concerned with the effect of dietary sucrose on the accepted CHD risk factors, viz., hyperlipidemia and hypertension, under experimental conditions, especially in nonhuman primates. In these studies we investigated the response of different nonhuman primates to the potentiating effects of sucrose on hyperlipoproteinemia and salt induced hypertension (Srinivasan et al. 1978, 1979a, 1979b).