Diabetes and Arterial Extracellular Matrix Changes in a Porcine Model of Atherosclerosis

Patients with diabetes are at substantially increased risk for atherosclerosis and clinical cardiovascular events. Because arterial extracellular matrix contains several molecules, including biglycan, versican, hyaluronan, and elastin, that may affect plaque lipid retention and stability, we determined whether diabetes affects plaque content of these molecules in a porcine model of hyperlipidemia and diabetes. Coronary artery sections were studied from non-diabetic normolipidemic (n=11, N-NL), diabetic normolipidemic (n=10, DM-NL), non-diabetic hyperlipidemic (n=16, N-HL), and diabetic hyperlipidemic (n=15, DM-HL) animals. Hyaluronan, biglycan, versican, and apolipoprotein B (apoB) were detected with mono-specific peptides or antisera, and elastin with Movat's pentachrome stain, and contents of each were quantified by computer-assisted morphometry. In the hyperlipidemic groups, diabetes was associated with a 4-fold increase in intimal area, with strong correlations between intimal area and immunostained areas for hyaluronan (R 2 = 0.83, p