Capillary Shunts in the Pathogenesis of Diabetic Retinopathy
Capillary Shunts in the Pathogenesis of Diabetic Retinopathy
复制标题
糖尿病视网膜病变发病机制中的毛细血管分流
作者:
I. Leopold
In the present issue, Cogan and Kuwabara suggest a relationship between the ghost appearance and absence of mural cells in the walls of the retinal capillaries and the presence of microaneurysms. With the development of a new trypsin digest method and subsequent staining by suitable dyes, these investigators have identified two types of cells associated with the capillary wall. One type is the endothelial cell lining the lumen; the other type they have called the mural cell because it is encased within the vessel wall and covered on both its inner and outer surfaces by basement membrane. They have not been able to find these mural cells on capillaries elsewhere, e.g. connective tissue, conjunctiva or choroid. They also could not find these mural cells in vessels that proliferate pathologically into the vitreous of man. Cogan and Kuwabara have distinguished the mural cell, which they initially identified as a perivascular glial cell, from the pericyte, limiting the term of pericyte to cells outside the wall in contradistinction to the term (mural cell) which refers to cells within the substance of the wall. Pericytes as defined, unprotected by the wall of the capillary if present, would be digested away by the trypsin prior to making the whole mount of the retina and would not be seen in their preparations. It has been suggested that these so-called mural cells may be similar, if not identical, to the so-called undifferentiated cell of the other body capillaries described by Bloom and Fawcett. Although the vessels which pathologically develop into the vitreous in the human eye do not show mural cells, Mutlu and Leopold have seen them lining the capillaries that make up the normal hyaloid circulation of the eye of the human fetus. These have been observed in specimens as early as sixteen weeks of age. Cogan and Kuwabara have assumed that the mural cells play a significant role in the retinal capillary function because of their widespread occurrence and abundance in all mammalian retinas studied, e.g. man, monkey, cat, dog, hamster, mouse and rat. In 1961, Cogan, Touissant and Kuwabara postulated that focal degeneration of the mural cells may be the initial lesion in diabetic retinopathy. Most investigators suspect that capillary degeneration is the initial incident in diabetic retinopathy and speculate that the retinal capillary disease is part of a body-wide microangiopathy of diabetes mellitus. The observation of Cogan et al. could explain the focal involvement of the capillaries, particularly those of the eye. Basement membrane changes have been described in many body capillaries of patients with diabetes mellitus. The basement membrane is definitely thickened in the retinal and renal capillaries, also in the muscle and skin capillaries. This has been evident by both light and electron microscopy. Yamashita and Becker have reported a similar thickening of the basement membrane of the ciliary processes of the human eye of patients with diabetes mellitus. Perhaps the initial lesion of the capillary microangiopathy is, as suggested by Bloodworth and others, the thickening of the basement membrane in the capillaries of the retina, of the glomerulus, of muscle and subcutaneous tissue. This observation has been made in patients before the establishment of clinical diabetes. Perhaps the endothelial cell is responsible for this overproduction of basement membrane. The function of the so-called mural cell or pericyte lying within the confines of the cell wall and within the thickening basement membrane is not known. The absence of mural cells in the large capillary channels associated with microaneurysms may be secondary to the basement membrane changes. The sequence of events is not certain. Information is available on the light and electron microscopic appearance of these cells. Cytoplasmic contents of the mural cells are similar but much scantier than that of the endothelial cells. The endothelial cells are continuous with each other and the mural cells are discontinuous. Both appear to arise from the same anlage but the endothelial cells arise earlier. Histochemical stains have demonstrated dehydrogenase activity for lactate DPN and little, if any, phosphatase, cholinesterase or succinic dehydrogenase activity. The mural cells may have the function of excluding red blood cells from most of the capillaries and Cogan and Kuwabara also suggest that inhibition of neovasculariza-