Electron-microscopic studies in human atherosclerosis cellular elements in aortic fatty streaks

Evidence for the chylomicron origin of lipids accumulating in diabetic eruptive xanthomas: a correlative lipid biochemical, histochemical, and electron microscopic study

“…The perithelial foam cells in rabbit xanthomas are ultrastructurally indistinguishable from the perithelial foam cells observed in diabetic xanthomas. This postulated progression of pericytes into foam cells is of more than casual interest since similar morphologic changes occur in the intimal smooth cells found in both human (42)(43)(44) and rabbit (45) atherosclerotic plaques. These findings suggest that perithelial cells might be analogous to smooth-muscle cells of large blood vessels and that both cell types may react similarly to the accumulation of lipids.…”

Cholesterol, triglyceride, and phospholipid content of intima, media, and atherosclerotic fatty streak in human thoracic aorta.

“…The accumulation of ester cholesterol in the fatty streak without the close interlipid associations seen in the normal intima may be due to intimal tissue losing control over the quantity of cholesterol it acquires, or it may be due to disruption of its mechanisms for handling cholesterol. In view of the present data, the latter could be caused by failure of the cell mechanism linking esterified and free cholesterol, as a fatty acid transferase (21), or by isolation of esterified cholesterol from the normal cellular mechanisms by segregation into different forms of intracellular vacuoles and extracellular lipid (6,22). These phenomena would appear to proceed independently of triglyceride metabolism.…”

Neuromorphology and Neuropharmacology of the Human Penis

“…They concluded that these myoendothelial cells did not arise from the tunica media because the healing there occurred only by formation of collagenous scar. Recent EM studies have shown that these cells are smooth muscle (13,14) and that they also appear in the intima of the aorta after fabric grafts (15) and in the blood vessels of patients with arteriosclerosis (16). Whether these myoendothelial bundles within the penile blood vessels are normal structures involved in the control ofblood flow or are pathological evidence of vascular degeneration cannot be determined at this time.…”