Vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and apoptosis of the aortic wall during the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm / 中国普通外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore vascular smooth muscle cell(SMC) proliferation and cell apoptosis during the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm(AAA). Methods The animal model of AAA was established in Wistar rats and the specimens were harvested at the 3rd day,and 1、2、3 and 4 week after the model initiation. In situ end-labeling of DNA fragments (TUNEL) was used to detect SMC apoptosis and immunohistochemical staining was applied to investigate the expression of SMC apoptosis markers(bcl-2,bax),proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and ?-actin. Results TUNEL-positive and PCNA-positive SMC reached the maximum at 2～3 week and 1 week respectively;The count of TUNEL-positive SMC was less than PCNA-positive SMC during the period of day 3 to 1 week and that was vice versa from 2nd to 4th week with SMC amount significantly decreased;Bcl-2 and bax protein was strongly expressed at 1 week and 3 week after operation(all P