Regeneration of endothelial cells after balloon denudation of the rabbit carotid artery and changes in responsiveness

The present experiments were carried out to determine the regrowth of endothelial cells (EC) after balloon denudation of the rabbit carotid artery and the changes in responsiveness of the artery with regenerated EC. Scanning electron microscopic findings revealed that 28.8% of the luminal surface was covered with regenerated EC at week 1. The regrowth of EC proceeded progressively, and a full lining was achieved at week 6. Regenerated EC were morphologically different from native ones; they were elongated (weeks 1 and 2) and irregularly oriented (weeks 4 and 6), and their numbers had significantly increased. Light microscopy revealed the intimal thickening and proliferation of smooth muscle cells. No accumulation of lipids in the vascular wall could be detected at any observation time. The experiments in an organ bath demonstrated that the altered appearance of EC was accompanied by depressed endothelium-dependent relaxations to acetylcholine, ADP and A23187. However, sodium nitroprusside-induced relaxation and contractile responses to noradrenaline, serotonin and histamine remained unchanged in the normal and denuded preparations, indicating that the dysfunction of the endothelium occurs at a time when the ability of the underlying vascular smooth muscle to relax or contract was unchanged. In addition, it is suggested that the impairment of the endothelium-dependent relaxation may be partly due to impairment of the synthesis and/or release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor(s) in EC.