RETINAL CAPILLARIES OF RAT IN DEOXYCORTICOSTERONE HYPERTENSION - ULTRASTRUCTURAL-STUDY WITH DIFFUSION TRACER LANTHANUM

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 85  (2) , 263-276
Abstract
Unilaterally nephrectomized rats treated with deoxycorticosterone and 1% NaCl in their drinking water developed severe systemic hypertension with marked cardiac and renal lesions. No pathologic changes could be detected in the retinal vasculature by light microscopy, but EM revealed inconstant alterations in the pericytes of retinal capillaries: these cells showed hyaloplasmic edema, margination of chromatin, dilatation of rough endoplasmic reticulum and swelling of mitochondria. Injection of lanthanum into control rats confirmed that this 40-.ANG. tracer cannot pass the interendothelial tight junctions. In hypertensive animals it penetrated these junctions and could be visualized in capillary basement membranes and between cells of the retina. An increase in permeability is probably the 1st pathologic change to occur in the retinal capillaries of hypertensive rats.