Morphological study on periadventitial adipose tissue of the aortic arch in a rabbit model of obesity: Preliminary results

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of obesity on some morphological features of periad-ventitial adipose tissue in the aortic arch region. Twelve male white New Zealand rabbits were di-vided into two groups of 6 animals each: non-castrated non-obese and castrated-obese. Immediately after the rabbits were sacrificed samples from the aortic arch were collected, fixed in 10% neutral formalin for 24 hours, dehydrated and embedded in paraffin. Five µm sections were cut and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Light microscopy of histological preparations from the aortic arch in the 2 groups showed that the periadventitial adipose tissue was represented of two fat depots. In the castrated and obese rabbits they were of bigger size compared with the lean animals. These greater fat depots were associated with hypertrophy of the adipocytes and increased number of blood vessels. The adipocytes of the fat depots from the two groups were unilocular and had the morphological characteristics of white adipose tissue. It may be concluded that obesity leads to increased mass of periadventitial adipose tissue, adipocytes hypertrophy and angiogenesis in the aortic arch.

Keywords

• angiogenesis
• aortic arch
• morphology
• obesity
• periadventitial adipose tissue