[Effect of vitamin E deficiency and of qualitatively varying dietary fats on the structure of the aorta and of the heart and kidney arteries in rats].

Rats kept for 8 months on vitamin E deficient diet or given butter in an amount of 50 % of the diet caloric value developed similar morphological changes in aortal walls and in intraorgan arteries of the heart and kidneys. These changes marked by derangement of the elastic base of the vascular wall were most pronounced in rats kept on E-avitaminosis diet. In these animals changes in vascular elasticity developed in the presence of the intima edema, occasionally, of the media, formation of the thickening of the vascular wall, appearance of calcinosis areas in it. As a rule, changes in coronary vessels were associated with myocardial structure impairment manifesting in the form of foci of necrosis in the muscle layer, in reparative cellular reaction and foci of substitution sclerosis.