[Cellular orientation and form in the elastic-hyperplastic layer of the human aortic intima in the area of the ostia of the intercostal arteries].

Using the Hatcher monolayer method, it has been shown that the aortic intimal smooth muscle cells, disposed on the flow divider of an intercostal artery, have predominantly spindle-like shapes to be oriented perpendicularly to the long axis of the vessel. Unlike, in the proximal and lateral sites of the intercostal ostium the intima is represented by stellate cells lacking any orientation. These distinctions may be presumably determined by the irregular distribution of hemodynamic loading on the aortic intima in different regions around the ostium of an intercostal artery.