ABSTRACT
In patients with an ascending aorta aneurysm, restructuring of all its layers and, first of all, the intima and media was revealed. The thickness of the intima was 79.3±63.1 µm in patients with aortic diameter <55 mm (group Ao<55) and 162.7±177.4 µm (p<0.05) in patients with aortic diameter ⩾55 mm (Ao⩾55 group), the thickness of the aortic media was 1184.0±198.2 and 1144.3±288.4 µm, respectively. In patients of the Ao<55 group, aortic dilatation was accompanied by compensatory thickening of the inner and middle layers of the aorta. In the Ao⩾55 group, thinning of the aortic media, fragmentation of elastic fibers, and its cystic degeneration were revealed. c-kit+ Stem cells were detected in the subendothelium of the thickened intima of the dilated ascending aorta. The appearance of c-kit+ cells correlated with intimal remodeling and its colonization with CD34+ and CD44+ myofibroblast-like cells.
Subject(s)
Aneurysm , Carotid Intima-Media Thickness , Humans , Aorta, Thoracic/diagnostic imaging , Aorta , Dilatation, PathologicABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: The aim of the study was to examine the peculiarities of the changes in Z-bands of myofibrils in the cardiomyocytes from patients with Ebstein's anomaly. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Electron microscopy assay of intraoperative biopsies of the right heart chambers in 41 patients aged from 9 months to 57 years was performed. RESULTS: Some patients exhibited Z-disk alterations of two types in individual cardiomyocytes, namely: local symmetrical bead-like expansions of Z-disks or longitudinal deposits of Z-material of different lengths along the myofibrils. Z-disk alterations were more common in atrial cardiomyocytes than in the ventricle. The presence of Z-disk alterations in the cardiomyocytes correlated with a number of clinical parameters. In particular, the occurrence of longitudinal deposits of Z-material in atrial cardiomyocytes directly correlated with the manifestation of the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome in the patients. CONCLUSIONS: Above characteristic ultrastructural changes in Z-bands of myofibrils in the cardiomyocytes from patients with Ebstein's anomaly have a certain similarity to Z-band diseases in skeletal muscle at sarcomeric protein gene mutations described in the literature, which suggests the mutations in the genes of proteins included in Z-bands of myofibrils in the cardiomyocytes from patients with Ebstein's anomaly.