By no means a research project on crystal growth formation, I simply wanted to capture the live motion of cholesterol to illustrate how it can crystallize in the human arteries. Under the microscope cholesterol looks beautiful. Make no mistake, it's a silent killer!
I did this project for a medical television documentary that was aired nationally in 1979. After seeing what the knife-like crystals can do to your arteries, you may want to consider changing your diet. I became a vegetarian shortly after.
The hearts and arteries I used in my experiment, were carefully dehydrated, decalcified, fixed, and then injected with a liquid celloidin (cellulose nitrate) to enhance arterial and vascular details. Cholesterol powder was melted and allowed to crystallize inside the arteries using a flexible transparent film electrode. High frequency electricity was then applied as a source of illumination using interference contrast and fluorescent microscopy. The process was measured, timed and filmed with an Arriflex 16mm motion-picture camera attached to a stereoscopic microscope. I used cold and hot temperatures in a controlled laboratory setting to speed-up the crystallization process.

Cholesterol crystals can cause damage to many biological membranes, sharp-tipped edged crystals can cut through membranes and the detached fragments from plaque erosion, could eventually led to arterial thrombosis.