Determining the level of occurrence of the lipid nucleus of atherosclerotic plaques in the abdominal aorta by means of infrared Fourier spectroscopy

Ageikin A.V.¹, Temnikov V.A.¹, Pronin I.A.¹, Averin I.A.¹, Mikulyak N.I.¹, Ionicheva L.V.¹ Almakaeva A.D.¹, Dimitrov D.Ts.²

1) Chair of Surgery, Department of Nano- and Microelectronics, Chair of Human Physiology, Penza State University, Penza, Russia
2) Laboratory of Nanoparticle Science and Technology, Sofia University named after St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria

The article deals with the problem of diagnosis of atherosclerotic alterations in abdominal aorta wall in order to reduce atherosclerosis-related mortality. Targeted treatment requires determining the exact mechanism of development of atherosclerosis. Infrared Fourier spectroscopy is suggested as the most rapid and accurate method of diagnosis and analysis of the content of various organic compounds playing a particular role in the development of the atherosclerotic process. Presented herein are the results of studying various types of fluctuations, whose absorption bands correspond to such organic compounds as collagen, elastin and cholesterol esters. A peculiar feature of this technique consists in a new method of the preparation of the material, including preparation of samples to be studied, with no stage of fixation. Analysed herein is one of the pathogenetic mechanisms of the development of the atherosclerotic process, consisting in accumulation in the vascular intima of low and very low density lipoproteins which are detected at a frequency of 1745 cm^-1, corresponding to stretching vibrations of the C=O bond. These organic compounds saturate from the inside the vascular wall, thus leading to formation of a lipid nucleus of an atherosclerotic plaque, whose centre is located at a certain depth. The authors present the results of studying the level of the centre of the lipid nucleus of an atherosclerotic plaque in abdominal aorta in perished 70-74-year-old people. It was determined that for this age group the level of the lipid nucleus is concentrated at a depth of 200–240 μm. Besides, presented are the results obtained while studying the abdominal aorta in 23-26-year-old deceased people whose vessels were not affected by atherosclerosis. Obtained are comparative results on the shift in bandwidth of amid I and amid II in studying the intima of the healthy aorta and atherosclerosis-affected aorta. This peculiarity may later on become an identifier of the degree of the development of atherosclerosis in man. The results of such studies provide possibility to influence namely the centre of the lipid nucleus as one of the initial stages of the development of atherosclerosis in order to slow down the progression of the disease concerned.

KEY WORDS: atherosclerosis, atherogenesis, lipids, lipid nucleus, transmission spectrum, infrared Fourier spectroscopy.

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