Experimental vascular occlusion in hypercholesterolemic rabbits.

Rabbits fed a diet rich in cholesterol developed hypercholesterolemia and atheromas in the cornea, sclera, iris, ciliary body, and choroid, and a few synchysis scintillans in the vitreous. The fellow eye of these rabbits, in which one nasal vortex vein was occluded, developed far more severe changes in all the above-mentioned eye tissues, especially over the sector of the eye drained by the occluded vein. In hypercholesterolemic rabbits in which a short posterior ciliary artery was occluded, the ischemic area of the choroid was gradually seem to become infiltrated with large crystalline particles. The combination of abnormal blood flow and hypercholesterolemia gives rise to an exaggerated deposition of extravascular lipid material. This experimental model is probably relevant to such human conditions as drusen and lipoid deposition in the choroid and cornea and the formation of asteroid hyalosis.