Publication: Dimensions of compartments and membrane surfaces in the intact rabbit heart of importance in studies on intramyocardial transfer of blood-borne substances
Authors
van der Vusse, Ger J. ; Verheyen, Fons ; Reneman, Robert S. ; Arts, Theo
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Publisher
Universidad de Murcia. Departamento de Biología Celular e Histología
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DOI
10.14670/HH-11-661
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
Cardiac studies on the uptake, storage and
intramyocardial transfer of blood-borne substances
require detailed information on the geometric
ultrastructural dimensions of myocardial compartments
and parts thereof, and the membranes separating these
compartments. Such a specific ultrastructural set of data
of the heart is yet lacking. In the present study, we
quantitatively assessed these dimensions in
glutaraldehyde-perfusion fixed rabbit hearts by means of
histological and tailored mathematical techniques.
We showed the true ellipsoid nature of the
myocardial capillary cross section and estimated the
mean capillary diameter dcap. After correction for the
ellipsoid shape, dcap was found to be 5.21±1.41 μm.
Effective widths of the endothelial cell and the
pericapillary interstitium (is1), dimensions of importance
in diffusion, amounted to 187±7 and 160±10 nm,
respectively. The fractional volume of the large vessels
(arteries and veins larger than 10 µm), capillaries,
endothelium, is1, cardiomyocytes, non-pericapillary
interstitium is2, t-tubular compartment and interstitial
cells amounted on average to 5.92%, 9.36%, 1.83%,
1.94%, 73.07%, 5.97%, 0.95% and 0.96%, respectively,
of total myocardial volume, defined as the cardiac tissue
volume, the large blood vessels included. Normalized to
total myocardial volume, the surface area of the luminal
and abluminal endothelial membranes and of the
cardiomyocyte membrane opposing the endothelial cells
amounted to 75.2±5.5x103, 82.2±6.0x103 and
89.1±6.5x103 m2/m3, respectively.
The present study provides quantitative information
about ultrastructural dimensions of the adult rabbit heart,
among others, of importance for studies on cardiac
uptake, and intramyocardial transfer and storage of
blood-supplied substances.
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Citation
Histology and Histopathology, vol. 31, nº 1, (2016)
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