Objective: To study the morphology of pericyte, the relationship between pericytes and neovascularization of breast carcinoma.
Methods: Ultrastructural, immunohistochemical and quantitative morphology analysis techniques were used to study 89 cases of human breast carcinoma. 4 human granulation tissues cases were used as control.
Results: The positive cells for FVIIIRAg were endothelial cells situated inside the vascular wall with abundant cytoplasm containing caveolae and Weibel-palade bodies. The positive cells for alpha-SMA were pericytes with cytoplasm containing abundant myofilament, and connections with endothelial cells. The pericyte-endothelial junctions can be found. Quantitative morphological analysis showed that the number of pericytes in the low-microvascular density areas are much higher than that in the high- microvascular density areas (P < 0.0005).
Conclusion: Ultrastructural observation and immunohistochemical staining of alpha-SMA are useful in identifying pericytes. The results of this study imply that pericytes may possibly inhibit angiogenesis.