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Biomedical subjects

A Orlandi

Publications and source records attributed to A Orlandi.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Age-related modification of average volume and anisotropy of vascular smooth muscle cells.

The aim of this study was to determine what changes in the arterial wall are related to age. In two groups of rabbits, one young and one adult, the aorta and carotid were studied using a morphometric approach based on stereological axioms and planimetric morphometry. The problem of anisotropy of smooth muscle cells is discussed in detail. Two forms of anisotropy must be distinguished, that of single cell and that due to the histological pattern of the smooth muscle cells in the arterial wall. Our results show in adult animals, as compared to the young ones, statistically significant decrease in anisotropy of the cell pattern which tends to become more regular. Moreover, in aorta and carotid of young and adult animals there is an increment of 95.39% and 80% of the absolute cell volume, respectively. We suggest that there may be a direct relationship between aging and phenotypical modulation of the smooth muscle cells and that the modification of the architectural cell pattern with age may represent an adaptive event related to the change in forces acting upon the arterial wall.

Aging↗
PubMed1992

Age-dependent increase of rabbit aortic atherosclerosis. A morphometric approach.

Aging has been indicated as one of the major risk factors for development of atherosclerotic lesions, although the role aging plays, lacks accurate evaluation. Our study was aimed at quantitatively defining such a role by using morphometric analysis. Aged (median age 3 years and 8 months) and young (4 months) white New Zealand rabbits received a hyperlipemic diet enriched with a low dose of cholesterol for 16 months. At regular intervals, levels of serum lipemic parameters were checked. A Quantimet 920 image analyzer was used on paraffin-embedded sections of the entire aortas to measure the volume density of the tunica intima, the volume density of atheroma, the ratio intima/media and the surface area of the tunica intima. Our results indicated for aged hyperlipemic rabbits a statistically significant increase in all morphometric parameters examined as compared to young hyperlipemic animals, and no statistically significant differences in serum cholesterol, triglycerides and phospholipids.

Aging↗
PubMed1991

Aging and atherosclerosis in the rabbit. 1. Distribution, prevalence and morphology of atherosclerotic lesions.

Aging is considered a risk factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. It is not clear, however, whether the relationship between aging and atherosclerosis is the result of increased susceptibility of the arterial wall related to intrinsic alterations or the expression of the increase in intensity or duration of exposure to risk factors. In this study, we used aged (median age 46 months) and young (4 months old) New Zealand white rabbits. Nine aged and 11 young rabbits received a hyperlipemic diet enriched with a low dose of cholesterol for 18 months. Eleven aged and 8 young rabbits, fed standard chow for the same period, were used as controls. Using morphologic and morphometric methods, we detected in aged hyperlipemic rabbits (a) a marked prevalence of fibroatheromatous plaques (as opposed to fatty streaks in young hyperlipemic rabbits); (b) aortic lesions more extensive and of greater dimensions than in young hyperlipemic rabbits; (c) fibroatheromatous plaques in carotids and raised fatty streaks in the large subepicardial coronary branches. Our results show an increased susceptibility of the aged arterial wall to hypercholesterolemia.

Aging↗
PubMed1991

Foam cells of the rabbit atherosclerotic plaque arrested in metaphase by colchicine show a macrophage phenotype.

Proliferative activity of smooth muscle cells and foam cells characterizes experimental atherosclerotic plaques as they first appear. Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural methods were applied to cells arrested in metaphase by colchicine and the phenotype of cells in mitosis was detected. Most of the metaphase arrested FC found in aortic plaques of cholesterol fed New Zealand rabbits were positive to the anti-macrophage monoclonal antibody and negative to the anti-smooth muscle actin monoclonal antibody. Moreover, most of the metaphase blocked FC had the ultrastructural features of macrophages. These preliminary results further strengthen previous observations on rabbit plaques that the FC pool is mainly constituted by macrophages and show, for the first time, that the dimension of this pool depends not only on migration of circulating monocytes but also on the in situ proliferation of macrophages.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

High-dose synthetic progestogens inhibit foam and smooth muscle cell proliferation and atherosclerotic plaque formation in aortas of rabbits fed a hypercholesterolemic diet.

Female rabbits on a hypercholesterolemic atherogenic diet were treated with high doses of the synthetic progestogens norethisterone and medroxyprogesterone acetate in order to clarify the effect and possibly some of the mechanism of action of these hormones on diet-induced atherogenesis. We employed morphometric studies to determine the surface area of the rabbit aorta occupied by and the maximum thickness of lipid plaques. Autoradiography with tritiated thymidine was performed to demonstrate the effect of the progestogens on cell proliferation, which plays a key role in atherogenesis. Medroxyprogesterone acetate-treated and, above all, norethisterone-treated animals exhibit a more marked reduction of atherosclerosis than control rabbits fed the same diet. Our results suggest that both progestogens we used inhibit the development of atherosclerosis mainly by blocking the proliferation of smooth muscle cells in the tunica media and the cell population of the plaque.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Latent pathology of the thyroid: an epidemiological and statistical study of thyroids sampled during 507 consecutive autopsies].

In order to highlight the occult pathology of the thyroid in the aged, the authors examined all the glands withdrawn from 507 consecutive autopsies on subjects of 67.10 years of median age. In 10 tables there are weight and measurements of the thyroids, macro and microscopic details and pathologic appearances. Adenomas were found in 17.1% of cases and histologically besides the known cases referred also to the Hürtle cells type, 4 clear cells adenomas and 5 adenolipomas were found. In 27.42% the subjects were affected or were dead for a malignant extrathyroidal neoplasm, and in 26% of these there was a metastasis in the thyroid. Never a primitive thyroid carcinoma, macroscopically and clinically evident, but in 53 thyroid glands, 54 occult carcinomas (OC) were found, particularly 37 papillary and 17 medullary. IN 57% of 165 histologically treated thyroids, to evidence C-cells, hyperplasia of these cells was found associated with various pathologic conditions, more in aged subjects. In 147 glands were found 170 nodules of various number of cells, at times positive for calcitonin. These solid cellular nodes (SCN) were evaluated as nodular C-cells hyperplasia. Besides isolated cases of acute thyroiditis (also the mycotic type), of tubercular thyroiditis and Hashimoto's, in 12% of the glands a lymphocytic chronic thyroiditis was found, frequently with Hürtle cells. Others observations were: basophilic thickening of colloid also with calcium oxalate crystals, lipoid degeneration of follicular cells and fat interfollicular and interlobular infiltration, thyroid amyloidosis, inner and media elastic calcification of thyroid arteries, presence of cysts with squamous cells coating, parathyroid glands and cartilage intrathyroidal plaques.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hysterosalpingographic abnormalities in infertile women: radiological and clinical interpretation.

A review of 1035 hysterosalpingographies (HSG) has shown a frequency of acquired and congenital morphological alteration in 272 patients with spontaneous abortion and in 763 infertile couples. The frequency of congenital anomalies was 25.5% in spontaneous abortions and 5.3% in infertility. Acquired morphological anomalies were 11.7% in spontaneous abortion and 34.6% in infertility. Tubal problems represent 25% of lesions in infertility. Furthermore couples have been studied by correlating the male factor i.e. the sperm quality to various types of morphological anomalies observed in order to better evaluate the actual damage evidence by HSG.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗