Objective The aim of this study was to observe the changes of autonomic nervous function in Wuzhishan minipigs (WZS) and investigate the relationship between dyslipidemia and 24 h or diurnal changes of autonomic nervous function in these animals.MethodsThe WZS minipig models of hyperlipidemia was established by feeding with high fat diet. The serum TG, TC, HDL-C and LDL-C levels were detected and electrocardiogram was monitored by non-invasion telemetry every 2 weeks. 24 h or diurnal autonomic nervous function was evaluated by heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. ResultsThe serum TC, HDL-C, LDL-C levels were significantly increased in the WZS minipigs after feeding with high fat diet for 2 weeks (P<0.01), and TG level was also significantly increased after 6 weeks (P<0.05). Among them, TC and LDL-C levels were rapidly increased during 0 to 4 weeks and reached a high peak at 4 to 6 weeks, and then maintained stable at a certain level during 8 to10 weeks. HDL-C was also rapidly increased and reached a peak during 0 to 2 weeks, and then maintained stable during 2 to 10 weeks. Meanwhile, HRV time-domain analysis indexes ( including RRI, SDNN, RMSSD, SDANN, PNN50, SDANN index, STV, LTV) and HRV frequency-domain analysis indexes (including TP, VLF, LF, HF) were gradually reduced (P<0.05, P<0.01), while LF/HF was significantly increased (P<0.05). The degrees of changes of the HRV parameters were slightly higher in the nighttime than those of daytime. The results of linear correlation analysis showed that there were significant correlations between TC, LDL-C, TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C and HRV parameters (P<0.05, P<0.01). Moreover, the multivariate linear gradual regressive analysis also showed that TC, LDL-C, TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C were related with SDNN, and their correlation coefficients were 0.3,0.2,0.665 and 0.681, respectively. ConclusionsHyperlipidemia induced in WZS minipigs by high fat diet may reduce and disturb the autonomic nervous function. The degree of disturbance of autonomic nervous function may be related with duration of hyperlipidemia status, and the risk of dyslipidemia caused by cardiovascular disease is higher in the nighttime than that in daytime. There is a certain dependence between reduced HRV and increased TC, LDL-C, TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio. The reduced SDNN can be considered as a predictive indicator of hyperlipidemia independently associated with the risk of development of cardiovascular disease.