Associations between pericytes and capillary endothelium in the eel rete mirabile.
Morphometric analysis of electron micrographs of the eel rete mirabile revealed that pericytes occupied nearly one-third of the cellular volume of this organ with over 75% of the pericyte volume associated with arterially derived capillaries. These pericytes were highly arborized, extending processes which encircled the capillaries and covering, on average, more than 85% the ablumenal surface of arterially derived capillaries. Pericytes and endothelial cells interacted in a manner suggesting that pericyte activity modulates both capillary blood flow and permeability.
Buchanan
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School of Life and Health Science, University of Delaware, Newark 19716.
Wagner
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D000400:Air Sacs / Q000098:blood supply; D000818:Animals; D002196:Capillaries / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004524:Eels / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000648:ultrastructure