Independence of arterial phospholipid synthesis from alterations in blood lipids

Abstract

Rabbits fed cholesterol for 1 to 5 months showed gradually increasing amounts of aortic phospholipid preceded by increases in plasma phospholipid concentration. Cholesterol feeding appeared to increase the turnover of plasma as well as aortic phospholipid. Curtailment of plasma phospholipid synthesis to one-tenth of normal by evisceration did not diminish the incorporation of P32 into aortic lipids. In these animals the aortic phospholipid specific activity was 15 to 90 times as great as that of plasma, so that practically all the labeled aortic phospholipid must have been synthesized in situ. Lowering the plasma lipid levels by removal of cholesterol from the diet did not diminish the cholesterol content of the aortic lesion or alter its phospholipogenesis.