Intimal changes in the femoral vein of streptozotozin-induced diabetic ratas

Abstract

The abnormalities of the vascular endothelium in diabetes have been shown to occur early in the disease and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic complications in this illness. However, morphological studies about the characteristics of diabetic vascular endothelium are scarce, and whether there are some reports about endothelial morphology in microvessels and arteries, less are reports about venous endothelium under hyperglycemia. Consequently, we questioned what sort of morphological evidence of injury could be observed in the intimal venous wall in diabetes induced by i.p. injection of STZ. 32 Sprague Dawley rats of equivalent weight and age were used to carry out the study. Diabetes was induced in half of these animals via an intraperitoneal injection of ST(65mg/kg dissolved in 4,5ph citrate buffer). The rest were injected with the buffer (control group) . The animals were sacrificed at six and twelve weeks later. A section of the common femoral vein was extracted and prepared for TEM. The intima of the diabetic venous wall presented an increase in the thickness of subendothelium by deposits of extracellular matrix compared with the controls. The morphological endothelial alterations are consistent with modifications in cytoplasmic vesicles, dilated organelles, and loss of cytoplasmic material forward the vascular lumen. In addition, it was possible to observe a larger number of Weibel Palade bodies. The injury of the venous endothelial cells, as described at the arterial level in diabetic animals, induces a chemotactic activity in the white blood cells.