Abstract: Objective: To investigate the effect of urantide on the levels of serum calcium, blood lipids and indexes of myocardial enzymes in the rats with atherosclerosis(As), and to clarify its mechanism of prevention and treatment of AS.Methods: A total of 180 Wistar rats were selected and randomly divided into normal control group, AS group, positive drug (simvastatin) group and urantide groups (3, 7 and 14 d group), 30 rats in each group. The rat model of AS was established by feeding on high-fat diet or intraperitoneally injecting vitamin D₃(VD₃).The body weights of rats were weighed at three time points: pre-experiment, pre-administration and end of experiment. The levels of Ca²⁺, total cholesterol(TC), triglyceride(TG), low density lipoprotein(LDL), high density lipoprotein(HDL), creatine kinase(CK) and lactic dehydrogenase(LDH) in the serum of the rats in various groups were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer.Results: The body weights of the rats in normal control group were gradually decreased with the prolongation of time;compared with normal control group, the body weights of the rats in AS group at the time point of pre-administration was decreased(P<0.01);compared with AS group, the body weights of the rats in different administration groups were increased(P<0.05 or P<0.01).The levels of serum Ca²⁺, TG, TC, LDL, CK and LDH of the rats in AS group were significantly higher than those in normal control group, and the level of HDL was decreased significantly(P<0.01).Compared with AS group, the levels of serum Ca²⁺, TC, TG, LDL, CK and LDH of the rats in urantide group were significantly decreased(P<0.05 or P<0.01), while the HDL levels were higher (P<0.05 or P<0.01).Conclusion: Urantide can prevent and treat AS by down-regulating or up-regulating the levels of serum calcium, blood lipids and indexes of myocardial enzymes in the AS rats.

Key words: urantide, atherosclerosis, serum calcium, blood lipids, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase