Connective tissue proteins on the injured endothelium of the rat aorta.

Type V collagen (TVC), fibronectin (FN), and laminin (LAM) were detected on the endothelial surface of mechanically injured rat aortas with the help of monospecific antisera and protein A - gold conjugates, carbon film surface replicas, and conventional embedding techniques. Deendothelialized tracks were produced in the thoracic aorta, and the presence of the connective tissue proteins on the luminal surface of the endothelium was studied. The changes in the distribution of the proteins during repair of the endothelial surface was followed for up to 6 days after injury. From 1 to 3 days after injury small numbers of gold particles, indicating the presence of TVC, were found between the adherent platelets on the freshly deendothelialized subendothelial matrix and in higher amounts on cell debris and collagen fibers. On the sixth day after injury, however, the amount of TVC between the sparsely distributed platelets on the deendothelialized areas was significantly higher than it was previously. FN and LAM were readily detectable on the subendothelial matrix and on the damaged marginal endothelial cells. These proteins were especially obvious on both margins of the tracks even from the first day after treatment. FN was found also in connection with fibrin precipitations as well as on the surface of some platelets and monocytes. The amount of FN and LAM present on the damaged area decreased slightly up to the sixth day. Monocytes and leukocytes adhered mostly at the margin of the wound area in the vicinity of the lesions on the endothelium. FN and LAM were often detectable under and around these adherent cells. Little of the connective tissue proteins was found on the uninjured and on the regenerated endothelial cells. The results showed subtle transitory changes in the surface pattern of the subendothelial connective tissue matrix of the injured intima. The adhesion of blood-borne cells may have been induced by FN and LAM on the endothelial surface near the lesions, and later partly prevented by increasing amounts of TVC on the surface.