ENHANCED CORONARY VASA VASORUM NEOVASCULARIZATION IN EXPERIMENTAL HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA

Coronary arteries contain a network of vasa vasorum in the adventitia. The three-dimensional anatomy of the vasa vasorum in early coronary a therosclerosis is unknown. This study was designed to visualize and qu antitate the three-dimensional spatial pattern of vasa vasorum in norm al and experimental hypercholesterolemic porcine coronary arteries, us ing a novel computed tomography technique. Animals were killed after b eing fed either a high cholesterol diet (n = 4) or a control diet (n = 4) for 12 wk. The proximal left anterior descending coronary artery w as removed from the heart, scanned, and reconstructed, and quantitatio n of vasa vasorum density was performed. Two different types of vasa v asorum were defined: first-order vasa vasorum ran longitudinally paral lel to the vessel and second-order originated from first-order vasa ci rcumferentially around the vessel wall. Compared with controls in hype rcholesterolemic coronary arteries, there was a significant increase i n the area of the vessel wall (3.86+/-0.22 vs. 8.07+/-0.45 mm(2), resp ectively, P < 0.01) and in the density of vasa vasorum (1.84+/-0.05/mm (2) vs. 4.73+/-0.24/mm(2); respectively, P = 0.0001). This occurred es pecially by an increase of second-order vasa vasorum and disorientatio n of normal vasa vasorum spatial pattern. This study suggests that adv entitial neovascularization of vasa vasorum occurs in experimental hyp ercholesterolemic coronary arteries and may be a part of the early ath erosclerotic remodeling process.