The fine structure of smooth muscle cells and their relationship to connective tissue in the rabbit portal vein.

The smooth muscle of rabbit portal vein was studied by electron microscopy with particular emphasis on the mechanical linkage between the muscle cells and on the distribution of connective tissue. The media of this vein is composed of inner circular and outer longitudinal muscle layers which are orientated almost perpendicularly to each other. The muscle of the inner circular layer shows very irregular contours with much branching and anastomosing of the cytoplasmic processes, which often make membrane contacts with neighbouring cells to form an extensive network of cytoplasmic processes. The muscle cells of the outer longitudinal layer are arranged in densely packed bundles and are spindle-shaped, with no branching processes. Opposing dense areas from neighbouring cells, with variable gap distances (30--100 nm) and close membrane contacts (intermediate junctions) with a gap of 11 nm were observed in both circular and longitudinal muscle layers. In the terminal regions of muscle cells in both circular and longitudinal layers a specialized anchoring structure was present which was closely related to extracellular elastic tissue. Muscle cells in the longitudinal layer showed the most elaborate structure, the tapering end of the muscle cell showing a honeycomb-like structure penetrated by columns of connective tissue compounds. The functional implications of these structures are discussed.