Quantitative characterization of the branching of placental villous capillaries
Marie Jirkovská,
Institute of Histology and Embryology, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University
Lucie Kubínová,
Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
Jiří Janáček,
Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
Josef Bendl,
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Abstract
The topological properties and spatial arrangement of the capillary bed in terminal villi of normal human placentas were studied using confocal microscopy. The Euler number of capillaries was estimated in villi sampled by the optical dissector principle. The corresponding topological reconstructions were made and surface renderings of selected villi and their capillary bed were performed. The capillary bed with no redundant connections was found in 80 per cent of villi, those with one connection in 15 per cent and those with two connections in 4 per cent of cases. It is concluded that in the terminal villi of normal placentas the longitudinal growth of capillaries appears to predominate over their branching.
Keywords : capillaries, Euler number, placental terminal villus, surface rendering, topological reconstruction
Pour citer cet article
Marie Jirkovská, Lucie Kubínová, Jiří Janáček & Josef Bendl, «Quantitative characterization of the branching of placental villous capillaries», Acta Stereologica [En ligne], Volume 17 (1998), Number 1 - June 1998, 87-92 URL : https://popups.uliege.be/0351-580x/index.php?id=2518.