| Popis: |
Using light microscopy, the morphometrical and stereological characteristics of non-pregnant female guinea-pig aorta was studied. The animals were killed by cervical dislocation, the aorta was removed, fixed and embedded in paraffin. Resultant blocks were cut on a microtome and sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Each section was examined under 10x magnification. To determine cross-sectional areas of the lumen, intima, media and adventitia, the standard Weibel M42 point-counting system was used. The cross sectional areas were calculated using the equation: area=Pi/PtxAg, where Pi is the number of points falling on an area, Pt is the total points of the test grid and Ag is the area of the whole test grid. The following values for crosssectional areas (expressed as 10 4 mm 2 ) of the different aortic layers were obtained: 1150.8±108 for the lumen, 60.3±5.3 for the endothelial layer, 454.9±39 for the medial layer and 152.2±13 for the adventitial layer. The cross-sectional area of guinea-pig aorta in total was 1818.3±178. We concluded that the lumen occupies 63.3%, intima 3.3%, media 25.0% and adventitia 9.4% of the total cross-sectional area of guinea-pig aorta. The results obtained provide a standard that can be used in further investigations of remodeling of guinea-pig aorta under different conditions, including pregnancy. |
