School of Public Health Reveals Diet May Cause Arteriosclerosis

A method of inducing "hardening of the arteries"--arteriosclerosis--in monkeys which points the way to the possible cure of the disease in humans has been developed by scientists working in the Graduate School of Public Health Laboratories.

In a paper to be presented this afternoon to the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Oscar W. Portman, a post-doctoral fellow at the School, describes a saturated fat diet which has been 90 per cent effective in inducing the disease in cebos monkeys imported from South Africa.

Atherosclerosis, the type of arteriosclerosis induced in the monkeys, commonly results in coronary heart attacks causing two out of three of the deaths of American males over the age of 40. Although the disease had previously been developed in rats, chickens, dogs and rabbits, this is the first time laboratory methods have produced it in a primate.

Coronary heart attacks are commonly caused by the accumulation of fatty deposits in the arteries hindering the normal flow of blood. This fatty lining has been found in the atreries of nine out of ten monkeys fed on a carefully regulated diet consisting chiefly of saturated fats such as are found in butter, Spry or Crisco in contrast to the unsaturated fats in corn or olive oil.

Continues Mann's Work

The basic preparation in this diet was developed approximately three-years ago by George V. Mann while working in the Nutrition Department of the School of Public Health. During the last two years, Portman has continued Mann's work, determining the specific amounts of fat needed to affect the arteries. He has found that shifts in amounts and concentrations cause variations in speed and seriousness of the disease.

Frederick J. Stare, Chairman of the School's Department of Nutrition, stated yesterday that the discoveries "offered the most promising hope from a practical point of view" of any recent development in the treatment of atherosclerosis.