Ultrastructure of early plexogenic pulmonary arteriopathy.

A lung biopsy specimen from a young woman with the clinical features of primary pulmonary hypertension showed grade 2 plexogenic pulmonary arteriopathy. Electron microscopy revealed 'dark', electron-dense smooth muscle cells in the inner part of the media of muscular pulmonary arteries. Many of these transformed myocytes had migrated into the lumens of pulmonary arteries and arterioles which they occluded. This migration of smooth muscle cells was associated with a substantial increase in the number of pulmonary endocrine cells in the bronchioles containing bombesin and calcitonin.