Some remarks on the growth-rate and angiogenesis of microvessels in ischemic stroke. Morphometric and immunocytochemical studies.

Variability in microvessel changes of blood vessel density has prompted us to undertake quantitative morphometric studies of infarcted areas in human brain. In the initial study, brains were obtained at autopsy from 10 patients (ages 45-85). Samples were collected from infarcted hemisphere and controls from the contralateral hemisphere. Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded and thereafter routinely processed sections were stained after Pickworth and with HE. Altogether 6,520 microvessels, representing 10,801 microscopic fields were counted. The Wilcoxon Range test was used for statistical analysis. In 9 of 10 patients in infarcted brain hemispheres, there was a marked increase in microvessel density (p < 0.01), when compared with contralateral brain hemisphere. In addition, a positive correlation was also found between the time of survival and both total density and density of non-perfused blood vessels. To gain a deep insight into the enhanced activity of microvessels, immunocytochemical studies were performed, which have shown, that the vascular endothelial cells in infarcted brain were reactive to two monoclonal antibodies, one, E-9, directed against an activation/proliferation associated endothelial cell specific protein and the other recognizing adhesion molecule VCAM-1. Pan-endothelial Mab PECAM/CD31 was used in those studies for controls and confirmed the obtained results. Our findings strongly support the concept of angiogenesis in the infarcted area. If correlated with morphometric results, it may indicate an important role of microvessels in pathobiology of ischemic stroke.