Yamamoto K, Igawa T
Tokushima Res. Inst., Japan.
Jikken Dobutsu. 1991 Apr;40(2):173-82. doi: 10.1538/expanim1978.40.2_173.
A marked plaque was produced at the tunica intima of the ascending aorta in all of the Japanese quails of 9 weeks old which fed on atherogenic diet containing 2% cholesterol for 8 weeks, while no structural changes of aortic wall were observed in Japanese quails which fed on normal basic food for the same period. The media of aorta in normal quails consist of smooth muscle cells, myofibroblast-like cells (MF) cells), and many successive elastic membranes. At the atherosclerotic lesion, many MF cells migrated from media into intima, and a part of smooth muscle cells were also differentiated to MF cells. Moreover, the most migrating MF cells differentiated to foam cells at the intimal thickness regions, and a few other MF cells also differentiated into endothelial cells of newly forming capillaries. By the immunohistochemical stainings, medial smooth muscle cells were negatively stained with anti-vimentin antibody, and the majority of cells in the intima (MF cells, foam cells, and endothelial cells) contained vimentin filaments. These results indicate that MF cells play a very important role in the development of atherosclerosis in Japanese quail. The morphologicals study offers some new insights into the evaluation of Japanese quails as an animal model of atherosclerosis.
在以含2%胆固醇的致动脉粥样硬化饮食喂养8周的所有9周龄日本鹌鹑中，升主动脉内膜出现明显斑块，而同期以正常基础食物喂养的日本鹌鹑未观察到主动脉壁结构变化。正常鹌鹑主动脉中膜由平滑肌细胞、肌成纤维细胞样细胞（MF细胞）和许多连续的弹性膜组成。在动脉粥样硬化病变处，许多MF细胞从中膜迁移到内膜，部分平滑肌细胞也分化为MF细胞。此外，大多数迁移的MF细胞在内膜增厚区域分化为泡沫细胞，少数其他MF细胞也分化为新形成毛细血管的内皮细胞。通过免疫组织化学染色，中膜平滑肌细胞抗波形蛋白抗体染色呈阴性，内膜中的大多数细胞（MF细胞、泡沫细胞和内皮细胞）含有波形蛋白丝。这些结果表明，MF细胞在日本鹌鹑动脉粥样硬化发展中起非常重要的作用。形态学研究为将日本鹌鹑作为动脉粥样硬化动物模型的评估提供了一些新见解。
