Repair in arterial tissue. Electron microscopy of Evans blue vital stained embolectomy catheter lesion of the rabbit thoracic aorta.

The rabbit thoracic aorta was studied by EM and vital staining with Evans blue at vaired points of time after a single lesion produced by an embolectomy catheter. EM of white areas: the surface cells of the myo-intimal thickening resembled endothelial cells with a discrete occurrence of microfilaments inside the plasma-membranes and rather differentiated flap-like junctions. EM of blue areas: the surface cells resembled modified smooth muscle cells with a heavily contrasted zone just inside the luminal plasma membrane containing closely packed microfilaments. The cell contacts either were missing, or they presented undifferentiated side-to-side contacts.