Summary
26 rabbits of the Danish country strain were subjected to mechanical dilatation injury of the left femoral and carotid arteries with Fogarty's embolectomy catheters F2 and F3 respectively. The rabbits were killed 2, 7, 14 and 28 days after the dilatation injury and the arteries examined histologically. Initially both of the arteries exhibited necrosis of the media and infiltration of the vessel wall with neutrophils and mononuclear cells. From day 7, intimal thickening was observed in both types of arteries, progressing in thickness during the later stages. However, thrombosis occurred in the majority of the carotid arteries, whereas this was only infrequently seen in the femoral arteries. In all of the dilated arteries, the elastic laminas were stretched or fragmented and never regained their normal appearance. In the carotid artery, giant cells accumulated around the fragmented elastin and calcified areas, located primarily at the intima-medial border. These changes were never observed in the femoral artery. At the twenty-eight days stage, proliferation of the smooth muscle cells more or less led to restitution of the media in the femoral artery, whereas the carotid artery showed medial restitution only to a lesser extent. The similarities between the injured carotid artery and human temporal arteritis, and the utility of the model as an animal model for the study of temporal arteritis are underlined.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albert DM, Searl SS, Craft JL (1982) Histologic and ultrastructural characteristics of temporal arteritis: the value of temporal artery biopsy. Ophthalmology 89:1111–1126
Banks PM, Cohen MD, Ginsburg WW, Hunder GG (1983) Immunohistologic and cytochemical studies of temporal arteritis. Arthritis Rheum 26:1201–1207
Baumgartner HR, Studer A (1963) Gezielte Überdehnung der Aorta abdominalis am normo- und hypercholesterinaemischen Kaninchen. Pathol Microbiol 26:129–148
Baumgartner HR (1972) Platelet interaction with vascular structures. Thromb Diath Haemorrh [Suppl] 51:161–176
Bhawan J, Joris I, DeGirolami U, Majno G (1977) Effect of occlusion on large vessels: a study on the rat carotic artery. Am J Pathol 88:355–380
Björkerud S (1969) Atherosclerosis initiated by mechanical trauma in normolipidemic rabbits. J Atheroscler Res 9:209–213
Björkerud S, Bondjers G (1976) Repair responses and tissue lipid after experimental injury to the artery. Ann NY Acad Sci 275:180–198
Buck RC (1961) Intimal thickening after ligature of arteries: an electron-microscopic study. Circ Res 9:418–426
Bylock A, Bondjers G (1981) Early reactions of the arterial wall following mechanical trauma. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand [A] 89:313–323
Clowes AW, Collazzo RE, Karnovsky MJ (1978) A morphologic and permeability study of luminal smooth muscle cells after arterial injury in the rat. Lab Invest 39:141–150
Clowes AW, Reidy MC, Clowes MM (1983) Kinetics of celullar proliferation after arterial injury: I. smooth muscle growth in the abscence of endothelium. Lab Invest 49:327–333
Clowes AW, Schwartz SM (1985) Significance of quiescent smooth muscle migration in the injured rat carotid artery. Circ Res 56:139–145
Christensen BC, Chemnitz J, Tkocz I, Kim CM (1979) Repair in arterial tissue: 2. connective tissue changes following an embolectomy catheter lesion. The importance of the endothelial cells to repair and regeneration. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand [A] 87:275–283
Fishman JA, Ryan GB, Karnovsky MJ (1975) Endothelial regeneration in the rat carotid artery and the significance of endothelial denudation in the pathogenesis of myointimal thickening. Lab Invest 32:339–351
Friedman RJ, Moore S, Singal DP (1975) Repeated endothelial injury and induction of atherosclerosis in nomolipemic rabbits by human serum. Lab Invest 30:404–415
Garbarsch C (1973) Enzyme histochemistry of rabbit thoracic aorta following a single mechanical dilatation injury. Acta Histochem 46:300–313
arbarsch C (1976) Aortavæggens reaktion på eksperimentel beskadigelse: histologiske og histochemiske studier over den reparative proces i aorta hos kanin. Thesis. Copenhagen
Gertz SD, Uretsky G, Wajnberg RS, Navot N, Gotsman MS (1981) Endothelial cell damage and thrombus formation after partiel arterial constriction: relevance to the role of coronary artery spasm in the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction. Circulation 63:476–486
Groves HM, Kinlough-Rathbone RL, Richardson M, Moore S, Mustard JF (1979) Platelet interaction with damaged rabbit aorta. Lab Invest 40:194–200
Guyton JR, Karnovsky MJ (1979) Smooth muscle cell proliferation in the occluded rat carotic artery. Am J Pathol 94:585–602
Helin P, Lorenzen I, Garbarsch C, Matthiessen (1971a) Arteriosclerosis in the rabbit aorta induced by mechanical dilatation: biochemical and morphological studies. Atheroclerosis 13:219–331
Helin P, Lorenzen I, Garbarsch C, Matthiessen ME (1971b) Repair in arterial tissue: Morphological and biochemical changes in rabbit aorta after a single dilatation injury. Circ Res 29:542–554
Kramer H, Windrum GM (1955) Metachromatic staining reaction. J Histochem Cytochem 3:227–237
Lillie RD, Fullmer HM (1976) Histopathologic technic and practical histochemistry. Fourth edition. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York
Lorenzen I (1963) Experimental arteriosclerosis: biochemical and morphological changes induce by adrenaline and thyroxine. Munksgaard, Copenhagen
Lorenzen I, Chemnitz J, Christensen BC, Christoffersen P, Garbarsch C, Hansen TM (1987) Electron microscopic and histochemical studies on temporal arteritis (In preparation).
Park JR, Hazleman BL (1978) Immunological and histological study of the temporal arteries. Ann Rheum Dis 37:238–243
Parker F, Healey LA, Wilske KR, Odland GF (1975) Light and electron microscopic studies on human temporal arteries with special reference to alterations related to senescence, atherosclerosis and giant cell arteritis. Am J Pathol 79:57–80
Pearse AGE (1968) Histochemistry: theoretical and applied. Third edition, vol 1. Little, Brown & Company, Boston
Pearse AGE (1972) Histochemistry: theoretical and applied. Third edition, vol 2. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh and London
Potvliege PR, Bourgain RH (1979) Thrombosis induced in vivo in the femoral artery of rats: an electron microscopic study of myointimal growth. Br J Exp Pathol 60:382–388
Ramsay MM, Walker LN, Bowyer DE (1982) Narrow superficial injury to rabbit aortic endothelium: the healing process as observed by scanning electron microscopy. Atherosclerosis 43:233–243
Reidy MA, Schwartz SM (1981) Endothelial regeneration: III. time course of intimal changes after small defined injury of rat aortic edothelium. Lab Invest 44:301–308
Reidy MA, Silver M (1985) Endothelial regeneration: VII. lack of intimal proliferation after defined injury to rat aorta. Am J Pathol 118:173–177
Richardson M, Kinlough-Rathbone RL, Groves HM, Jorgensen L, Mustard JF, Moore S (1984) Ultrastructural changes in re-endothelialized and non-endothelialized rabbit aortic neo-intima following re-injury with ballon catheter. Br J Exp Pathol 65:597–611
Ross R, Glomset J (1977) Response to injury and atherogenesis. Am J Pathol 86:675–684
Schwartz SM, Stemerman NB, Benditt EP (1975) The aortic intima: II. repair of the aortic lining after mechanical dilatation. Am J Pathol 81:15–42
Williams G, Jackson DC (1956) Two organic fixatives for acid mucopolysaccharides. Stain Technol 31:189–191
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rasmussen, L.H., Garbarsch, C. & Lorenzen, I. Injury and repair of smaller muscular and elastic arteries. Vichows Archiv A Pathol Anat 411, 87–92 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00734519
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00734519