[Structural transformations of the vascular system of the connective tissue layer of the skin].

Electron microscopic radioautography was performed in skin biopsies obtained from six surgical patients without skin lesions. It has been discovered that besides typical vessels--arterioles and venules--there are vessels with damaged structure in connective tissue of skin basis. On serial electron microscopic sections vascular wall thinning and gradual disconnection of wall-forming cells can be visualized. The authors suggest that structural changes in connective tissue vessels of skin basis are the physiological phenomenon. As a result of such changes pericytes may separate from the vascular wall and initiate new populations of fibroblasts.