Morphometric,quantitative, and three‐dimensional analysis of the heart muscle fibers of old rats: Transmission electron microscopy and high‐resolution scanning electron microscopy methods |
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| Authors: | Diego Pulzatto Cury Fernando José Dias Marcia Consentino Kronka Sosthenes Carlos Alexandre Dos Santos Haemmerle Koichi Ogawa Marcelo Cavenaghi Pereira Da Silva João Paulo Mardegan Issa Mamie Mizusaki Iyomasa Ii‐Sei Watanabe |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of S?o Paulo, Brazil;2. Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of S?o Paulo, S?o Paulo, Brazil;3. Institute of Biological Sciences, Lab. of Investigations in Neurodegeneration and Infection, University Hospital “Jo?o de Barros Barreto,” Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil;4. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan;5. Department of Morphology and Genetics, Federal University of S?o Paulo, S?o Paulo, Brazil;6. Department of Morphology, Stomatology, and Physiology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of S?o Paulo, Ribeir?o Preto, Brazil |
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| Abstract: | This research investigated the morphological, morphometric, and ultrastructural cardiomyocyte characteristics of male Wistar rats at 18 months of age. The animals were euthanized using an overdose of anesthesia (ketamine and xylazine, 150/10 mg/kg) and perfused transcardially, after which samples were collected for light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and high‐resolution scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that cardiomyocyte arrangement was disposed parallel between the mitochondria and the A‐, I‐, and H‐bands and their M‐ and Z‐lines from the sarcomere. The sarcomere junction areas had intercalated disks, a specific structure of heart muscle. The ultrastructural analysis revealed several mitochondria of various sizes and shapes intermingled between the blood capillaries and their endothelial cells; some red cells inside vessels are noted. The muscle cell sarcolemma could be observed associated with the described structures. The cardiomyocytes of old rats presented an average sarcomere length of 2.071 ± 0.09 μm, a mitochondrial volume density (Vv) of 0.3383, a mitochondrial average area of 0.537 ± 0.278 μm2, a mitochondrial average length of 1.024 ± 0.352 μm, an average mitochondrial cristae thickness of 0.038 ± 0.09 μm and a ratio of mitochondrial greater length/lesser length of 1.929 ± 0.965. Of the observed mitochondrial shapes, 23.4% were rounded, 45.3% were elongated, and 31.1% had irregular profiles. In this study, we analyzed the morphology and morphometry of cardiomyocytes in old rats, focusing on mitochondria. These data are important for researchers who focus the changes in cardiac tissue, especially changes owing to pathologies and drug administration that may or may not be correlated with aging. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
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| Keywords: | heart old rats TEM HRSEM mitochondria |
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