Cigarette smoking increases the development of initial hyperplasia after vascular injury.

Objective: Our purpose was to determine whether exposure to cigarette smoke increases the development of intimal hyperplasia (IH) after vascular injury.

Methods: Sixteen adult male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent standardized balloon catheter injury of the left common carotid artery. For 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after injury, animals in the experimental group (n=8) were exposed to cigarette smoke with an automated vacuum pump device. Animals in the control group (n=8) were restrained in the smoking device for an identical amount of time and underwent arterial injury at 4 vivo, prepared as histologic cross sections, and stained for elastin. IH was measured by planimetry and is reported both as the absolute area of IH and as the ratio (IH/IEL) of the absolute area of IH to the normalized area enclosed by the internal elastic lamina (expressed as a percent).

Results: The absolute area of IH was 2.09 +/- 0.34 for the experimental group compared with 0.94 +/- 0.25 for the control group; mean IH/IEL was 43% +/- 7.1% for the experimental group versus 17.7% +/- 4.7% for the control group (p < 0.05, two tailed unpaired t test.

Conclusions: Inhalation of cigarette smoke increases the development of intimal hyperplasia in a rat model of a balloon catheter arterial injury.