Pericytes are correlated with the permeability of rat corneal neovascular vessels induced

Pericytes are correlated with the permeability of rat corneal neovascular vessels induced by alkali

burn

ZHAO Wei;JIANG Ai-hua;LI Chao-yang;YANG Wen-zhao;XU Chuan-chao;LIU Zu-guo

【期刊名称】《中华医学杂志（英文版）》 【年(卷),期】2007(120)004

【摘要】Background Corneal neovascular leakage can lead to edema and secondary scarring. Previous studies have shown that pericytes play a key role in maturation of angiogenesis. The present studies investigate the relationship between vascular permeability and pericyte coverage of endothelial cells in rat corneal neovascular induced by alkali burns.Methods Corneal neovascular vessels induced by alkali burns was performed in Sprague-Dawley rats. Corneas were excised on 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days after cauterization. The vascular permeability rate was measured by the Evans blue method. The microvessel pericyte coverage index (MPI) was applied to quantify the pericyte coverage through double immunofluorescent staining of frozen sections of corneas with CD31 as the endothelial and α-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA) as the pericyte markers. The correlation between permeability rate and MPI was analyzed. Pericyte coverage was confirmed ultrastructually using transmission electron microscopy.Results The vascular permeability rate was (1.14±0.17), (0.24±0.08), (0.29±0.16), (0.14±0.10), (0.09±0.06) and