Endothelial injury in vivo: a technical and statistical approach to the study of aortic integrity.

• The endothelium can be a link connecting risk factors with the development of cardiovascular disease, and methods for studying endothelial integrity are therefore important. We describe a method of studying endothelial injury in vivo by combining immunohistochemistry with an improved technique of producing "enface" preparations (Häutchens) aortic endothelium of rabbits and guinea pigs. These Häutchens enabled the study of large numbers of endothelial cells and adherent cells (probably leukocytes) at different locations along the aorta. The statistical distributions of the number of injured endothelial cells and adherent cells in a visual field were also investigated, and both closely followed a log-normal distribution. Based on this distribution, a method to estimate endothelial injury by grouping the cell count data, instead of exact counting, was developed. The grouped cell count data were then used to calculate the grouped mean and grouped standard deviation for each animal. The improvements of the technical and statistical methods offer good opportunities to study various aspects of endothelial integrity in a time efficient manner.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Kardiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Animals

Aorta

Thoracic

injuries

pathology

physiopathology

Cell Adhesion

Endothelium

Vascular

injuries

pathology

physiopathology

Guinea Pigs

Histological Techniques

Image Processing

Computer-Assisted

Immunohistochemistry

Male

Models

Cardiovascular

Rabbits

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)