Morphological Studies on Blood Vessels in Rats after Application of Cisplatin

Abstract

Background: Patients having received chemotherapeutic treatment before undergoing microsurgical operations often show an increased rate of thromboses. It is supposed that these complications originate from cytostatically induced lesions in the blood vessels. Therefore alterations in big vessels and capillaries of rats after application of cisplatin were studied. Materials and Methods: 60 female WAG/Rij rats were treated with a total dose of 12.6 mg/kg body weight cisplatin injected into the left jugular vein in 9 equal fractions over 3 weeks. Vascular damages of the common carotid artery were studied in cross sections by light microscopy and methacrylate casts by scanning electron microscopy; capillary lesions in the area of the sternocleidomastoid muscle were examined by transmission electron microscopy. Results: The light microscopic figures show that cisplatin induces damages like swelling and bulging of endothelial cells from the basement membrane at the end of treatment. The scanning electron micrographs demonstrate a clear reduction of the tiny vascular network. The transmission electron studies present severe lesions of the endothelial cells, the basement membrane, and the pericytes of the capillaries. Conclusions: It must be established that a cisplatin treatment induces generalized damages not only in the endothelium of big vessels, but also in the vascular network of the capillaries. The observed morphological alterations may lead to functional disturbances in the blood circulation which, in turn, are responsible for the increased risk of thromboses. This may be an important aspect for microsurgical interventions in patients pretreated with cisplatin.