Studies on retinal capillary cells in tissue culture

Pericyte-endothelial gap junctions in developing rat cerebral capillaries: a fine structural study

BACKGROUND

Fine structural study revealed the intercellular coupling between the pericyte and the endothelial cells via the gap junctions, in the capillaries of the basal forebrain of rat embryos.

RESULTS

Gap junctions were constructed by the adluminal plasmalemma of pericyte and the abluminal plasmalemma of endothelial cells.

CONCLUSIONS

Gap junctions are membranous channels that directly join the cytoplasms of the pericyte and endothelial cell and imply some substantial role for the pericyte on the endothelial proliferation. It is postulated that the function of the pericyte in the prenatal mammals are assigned to the regulation of the development of cerebral microcirculation.

Human retinal vessels in tissue culture. A preliminary report of the effect of acute glucose poisoning on cultured vascular cells

To delineate the factors involved in the pathogenesis of human retinal vasculopathies, as in vitro model of human retinal vascular cells was developed by using cadaver eyes enucleated four to eight hours after death and stored at +4 C for three to seven days. A pure, viable capillary explant was obtained by microdissection and gentle agitation; the more rapidly occurring postmortem changes in the surrounding nervous tissue of the retina facilitated separation of the vascular explants. Factor VIII indirect immunofluorescent staining revealed that 85% to 90% of the cells harvested from capillaries of 3- to 5-day-old cadaver eyes and all cells cultured from 1-week-old postmortem eyes reacted positively, indicating their endothelial nature. High-glucose medium caused degenerative changes in the cells of the initial explant as well as in the cells of confluent cultures within 24 to 72 hours. The cytotoxic effect of glucose was manifested by accumulation of PAS-positive granules, cytoplasmic vacuolation, and eventual cell degeneration.