Cellular and vessel wall morphology of cerebral cortical arterioles after short-term diabetes in adult rats.

Microvascular pathology is one of the major problems associated with prolonged diabetes mellitus. The purpose of the present study was to determine if anatomical cellular pathology of the cerebral cortical microvessels could be detected very early after the onset of a streptozotocin-induced model of diabetes. Male rats at age 14-16 weeks were hyperglycemic (greater than 250 mg/dl) for 4 weeks prior to scanning and transmission electron microscopic analysis of the external and internal cell and vessel wall morphology of the arterioles. Scanning electron microscopic studies indicated that many processes of vascular smooth muscle cells changed their normal spindle shape to a branched or stellate configuration. The internal cellular changes included swollen mitochondria and cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum and reduced cytoplasmic staining. Necrosis of arteriolar endothelial cells was evident in virtually every vessel section studied. These data indicate that vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cellular degeneration of cerebral cortical arterioles begins in the very early stages of the streptozotocin model of diabetes.