A comparison of the size of fenestrations in the internal elastic lamina of young and old porcine aortas as seen with the scanning electron microscope

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Abstract
The size of the fenestrations (windows) in the internal elastic lamina (IEL) of arteries may be important in the functioning of the blood vessel wall. The fenestrations are filled with collagen, muscle, and (or) ground substance, which must be removed to make the fenestration visible with the scanning electron microscope. All of the nonelastic components are removed with a hot alkali solution. Our experiments were designed to compare the fenestration size in the IEL of the thoracic aorta of young (6–8 weeks) and old (6–9 months) pigs. A protocol for digestion of young pig tissue was developed and showed that fresh young aortas should be digested in 0.1 M NaOH at 75 °C for 2 h and fixed tissue should be digested for 5 h. The average area of the fenestrations for young pig thoracic aortas digested for 2 h was 1.8 ± 0.29 (SE) μm2 and for the old pig aortas digested for 2 h was 1.7 ± 0.11 (SE) μm2. These values were not significantly different (p > 0.05), but the IEL from young pigs appeared rougher than the previously reported smooth IEL of the adult pigs.Key words: elastin, fixation, digestion, fenestration, scanning electron microscope.