Hypercholesterolemic rabbit model

However, as a side-effect of the therapy, his patients suffered from a massive flush syndrome (harmless but mostly unpleasant reddening ofthe skin on the face, neck, chest and upper arm). For a better assessment, Hoffer himself took gram quantities of niacin over several months, and discovered to his surprise that this treatment had healed his serious inflammatory gum disease. Inspired by Rudolf Virchow s hypothesis, that atherosclerosis was an inflammatory process, which was associated with serum cholesterol, Rudolf Altschul (1901-1963), Hoffer s former histology teacher, demonstrated in his hypercholesterolemic rabbit model, that within a few days niacin brought cholesterol levels back to normal. This prompted corresponding studies by Hoffer in the psychiatric patients. 

Verin V Popowski X Urban P et al. Intra-arterial beta irradiation prevents neointimal hyperplasia in a hypercholesterolemic rabbit restenosis model. Circulation 1995 92 2284-2290. 

Similarly, L-arginine may provide some protection against graft atherosclerosis in heart transplant recipients via -NO-mediated inhibition of intimal cell proliferation (Drexler et al., 1994) and may attenuate the adhesion of monocytes to the EC surface in a dietary model of experimental atherosclerosis (Tsao et al., 1994). In contrast, other data suggest that NO production is actually enhanced in hypercholesterolemic vessels (Minor et al., 1990). Using chemiluminescent techniques. Minor et al. (1990) showed that the basal release of -NO and its metabolites was increased in the aortas of hypercholesterolemic rabbits. This implies that impaired relaxation responses are due to the rapid reaction of NO with other target molecules. 

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