title: Differences in regional capillary distribution and myocyte sizes in normal and hypertrophic rat hearts.
abstract: Data are reported which show significant regional capillary differences in left ventricular endocardium and epicardium of normal rats and of rats with hyperthyroid-induced cardiac hypertrophy. The epicardial region of control rats has 38% more capillaries than the endocardial region. Control endocardial myocytes are 62% larger in cross-sectional area than epicardial myocytes. Hypertrophic hearts exhibit regional differences in capillary density similar to those in the normal hearts, but there is an overall reduction of 12 and 17.5% in capillary density in both regions. The average cross-sectional area of myocytes increases 34.5% in the epicardium and 22.5% in the endocardium.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002196:Capillaries / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000473:pathology*; D003331:Coronary Vessels; D004699:Endocardium; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology; D010496:Pericardium; D051381:Rats / Q000033:anatomy & histology*