Vessel repair after balloon angioplasty: morphological appearance and prostacyclin synthesising capacity.

Immediately after balloon dilatation of the rabbit aorta the release of prostacyclin is diminished. In this study the morphological appearance and time course for recovery of prostacyclin production after balloon dilatation have been investigated. Healthy rabbit aortas were analysed 1 h (n = 12), 1 week (n = 13) and 1 month (n = 13) after angioplasty. The production of prostacyclin, from dilated and non-dilated aortic segments, was recorded in a perfusion system. Prostacyclin was measured as its stable degradation product 6-keto-PGF1 alpha. Scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy were used to analyse the type of cells present at the luminal surfaces of the segments. When endothelial cells were found their degree of coverage was also estimated. One hour after balloon dilatation there was a lower production of prostacyclin from the angioplasty segments than from controls. Also, the response to added arachidonic acid (AA) was lower in the angioplasty segments. No endothelial cells were present in the angioplasty segments. After 1 week there was no difference in the basic production of prostacyclin but there was still a lower response from angioplasty segments to the addition of AA. The inner surfaces of the angioplasty segments were covered by three to five layers of smooth muscle cells (SMC). After 1 month, there was no difference in either the basic production or after the addition of AA between control and angioplasty segments. The angioplasty segments were covered with a multilayer of SMC. The control segments had an almost complete cover of endothelial cells at every time interval after angioplasty.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)