Comparison of Dolichos biflorus lectin and other lectin-horseradish peroxidase conjugates in staining of cutaneous blood vessels in the hairless mini-pig.
Angiogenesis is necessary for normal growth, wound healing, and plays a key role in many pathologic processes. A variety of endothelial markers have been used to investigate angiogenesis. Unfortunately, excellent markers for vascular endothelium in human tissues exhibit little or no staining of endothelia in tissues of other animal species, including the pig. We are interested in the hairless Yucatan strain of mini-pig as an animal model for studying cutaneous wound healing because its skin is histologically and functionally very similar to that of man. Hoping to find a specific marker to identify vascular endothelium in the mini-pig, we therefore screened a battery of 11 different lectin-horseradish peroxidase conjugates. Based on specificity and staining intensity, Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) was chosen from this battery to investigate vascular changes in the healing of cutaneous wounds in the mini-pig. When compared with routine histologic sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin, blood vessels were much easier to identify in sections stained histochemically with DBA. Lectin histochemistry was particularly useful in investigations of early events in angiogenesis during wound healing when newly derived capillary buds and minute blood vessels were obscured in normal histologic sections by an inflammatory cell infiltrate associated with the healing wound. Ultrastructural lectin cytochemistry revealed staining along the luminal surface and the basolateral plasmalemma of endothelial cells. Histochemical staining with DBA promises to provide a useful method for further investigation of angiogenesis and other vascular phenomena in a variety of normal and pathologic processes using the hairless Yucatan strain of mini-pig as the animal model.
Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710.
D
D
Darr
K M
KM
McCormack
T
T
Manning
S
S
Dunston
D C
DC
Winston
B A
BA
Schulte
T
T
Buller
S R
SR
Pinnell
D000818:Animals; D001706:Biopsy; D037102:Lectins; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D037121:Plant Lectins; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013552:Swine; D013556:Swine, Miniature; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*
D037102:Lectins; D037121:Plant Lectins; C036554:dolichos biflorus agglutinin