Intimal hyperplasia in autogenous vein grafts used for arterial bypass: a canine model

Late vein graft occlusion following myocardial revascularisation is usually the result of progressive intimal hyperplasia which ultimately leads to vein graft thrombosis. Considerable attention has recently been directed towards the development of optimal platelet-inhibiting drug regimens designed to prevent intimal hyperplasia in autogenous vein grafts. This report describes an animal model that reliably reproduces short-term intimal hyperplasia in autogenous vein grafts, thus facilitating the study of platelet-inhibiting drug regimens for the prevention of intimal hyperplasia. 28 segments of undistended jugular vein were implanted end-to-end between bilaterally divided femoral arteries in 14 mongrel dogs. Seven control animals (CON) received a non-lipid diet one week before and for 6 weeks following vein implantation. A further seven animals received a 2% cholesterol diet throughout the study. Serum cholesterol was measured at 4.06 ± 0.6 mmol·litre-1 in the CON and did not change significantly throughout the study. Serum cholesterol rose from 3.9 ± 0.4 to 8.5 ± 0.8 mmol·litre-1 in the lipid-supplemented animals (p