Abnormalities of the blood vessels feeding the femoral head liable to osteonecrosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats

为了阐明类似Perthes病股骨头坏死的自发性高血压大鼠股骨头骨坏死的原因，我们观察了形成股骨头骨骺核的大鼠股骨头血管的发育和供血血管的异常情况。使用光学和扫描电镜（SEM）观察股骨近端血管铸型。在5周龄的生长大鼠中，外侧骨骺血管（LEVs）从股骨颈血管弓处冒出。出生后9 ~ 15周是SHRs股骨头骨坏死多发的时期，主要的供血血管lev从股骨头外侧进入。即使在骨化正常的股骨头中，骨骺与股骨颈之间的lev吻合分支也很少。在这一时期，杠杆率的发展似乎并没有正常进行。此外，明显的节段性狭窄和lev梗阻常在股骨头外侧附近被发现。这些结果表明，生长中的shr的lev具有血管结构，可能导致股骨头的血液供应中断。

In order to elucidate the cause of osteonecrosis of the femoral head in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), which resembles the osteonecrosis of Perthes'disease, we investigated the development of the blood vessels forming the epiphyseal nucleus of the rat femoral heads, and the abnormalities of the blood vessels feeding the femoral heads of SHRs. The vascular casts of the proximal femur were observed using both an optical and a scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In the growing rats at the age of 5 weeks, the lateral epiphyseal vessela (LEVs) budded out from the arch of the blood vessels on the femoral neck. During the period of 9-15 weeks after birth, when osteonecrosis of the femoral heads in SHRs occurred frequently, LEVs, which were the main feeding vessels, entered from the lateral of the femoral heads. Anastomosing branches of LEVs between the epiphysis and the femoral neck were scarce even in the femoral heads showing normal ossification. It seemed that the development of LEVs did not proceed normally in this period. Furthermore, remarkable segmental stenosis and the obstruction of LEVs were often recognized near the lateral of the femoral heads.These results suggested that LEVs in growing SHRs have the vascular structure that could cause an interruption of the blood supply to the femoral heads.