A study on hippocampal vasculature in human and rat

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1671-2897.2004.03.008

Abstract：Objective To investigate the vascular patterns of both human and rat hippocampal formation comparatively.Methods This study mapped the morphology, distribution and origination of hippocampal blood vessels by successive injections with India ink and dye to demonstrate the formation of both arteries and veins in specimen. The microstructures of vessels were observed by scanning electron microscope with methyle methacrylate vascular replica. Image quantitative analyzer was also used for morphometric comparison of diameters and densities of capillaries in hippocampus. Results The hippocampal arteries arose from the posterior cerebral arteries and anterior chorioid arteries in infants, whereas hippocampal arteries of rats mainly stemmed from the posterior cerebral arteries. The blood vessels on hippocampal surface and internal angioarchitecture were regularly arranged in human being, however, the latter was not so obvious as in rats. These results demonstrated a close relationship between the microangio-architecture and the arrangement of nervous tissue in hippocampus of rats.Conclusion The vascular architecture in hippocampus is closely related to hippocampal lamellar neural organization in both human and rats. There were lots of microvascular anastomoses and capillary networks in hippocampus of human and rat.