A HISTOCHEMICAL AND CHROMATOGRAPHIC STUDY OF NORMAL AND ATHEROMATOUS HUMAN ARTERIES

Some of the chemical findings of previous workers, on the type and distribution of aortic lipids have been confirmed by histochemical methods and have been extended to include other arteries. With increasing age the total lipid was found to increase in the apparently normal artery. Cholesterol and its esters appeared in the 20-29 decade in the intima of the aorta. Subsequent decades showed a deposition in the intima of other vessels and the media of the aorta. Phospholipid deposition followed a similar pattern. The following steroids have been demonstrated by paper partition chromatography in both the normal and abnormal aorta, cholesterol, cholest-5-ene-3β:7β-diol, cholest-5-ene-3β:7α-diol, cholestane-3β:5α:6β-triol, and cholest-5-ene-3β:24 or 25 diol.