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Effects of Ingestion of High Protein or Excess Methionine Diets by Rats for Two Years¹

Centre de Recherches sur la Nutrition, CNRS, F92190 Meudon-Bellevue, France ^* Centre de Recherches sur les Maladies Cardiovascularies Claude Bernard, F75013 Paris, France

Eighteen male Wistar rats weighing 230 g (9 wk old) were fed casein diets containing 10% protein (HC), 50% protein (HP) or 10% protein plus 2% DL-methionine (MET) for 2 yr. In HC rats, mean body weight was 570 g; the carcass contained 13.5% protein and 37% lipid. The HP-fed rats had a 100 g lower body weight than HC rats due solely to a smaller amount of body lipid. Liver urea concentration and kidney weight were higher in HP rats than in HC rats. The body weight of MET-fed rats was lower than the other two groups and body lipid was only 30% that of HC rats. Histologic examination showed a normal aspect of the thoracic aorta from HC rats, whereas in HP, moderate signs of vascular aging—thicker intima and media with hypertrophy of smooth muscular cells (smc) with collagen enrichment and diffuse fibrosis—were observed. Aortas from MET rats also exhibited thicker intima and media due to smc hypertrophy. Some smc presented degenerative aspects and necrosis; other smc were replaced by chondrold cells and foci of fibrosis, resulting in a loss of the distension capacity of the aorta. Such an advanced stage of vascular aging is not normally found in 2-yr-old rats.

KEY WORDS: • high protein diet • methionine excess • body composition • aorta fibrosis

¹ Part of this work was presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, St. Louis, MO, April 1984 [Peret, J. & Fau, D. (1984) Effects of high protein or excess methionine diets ingested for two years. Fed. Proc. 43: 672 (abs. 2267)].

Manuscript received 8 December 1986. Revision accepted 22 September 1987.

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