Influence of graft innervation on neovascularization of embryonic heart tissue grafted in oculo. Torry, Ronald J., Brenda J. Rongish, Diane C. Tucker, David R. Kostreva, Robert J. Tomanek. Department of Anatomy, Bowen Science Building, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, Division of Experimental Pathology, Center for Reproduction and Transplantation Immunology, Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, IN 46206, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, Psychology Department, University of Alabama -Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, Proctor and Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Woods Corners, Norwich, NY 13815
APStracts 2:0303H, 1995.
We have shown that sympathetic denervation increases subendocardial capillarity during left ventricular hypertrophy. To determine the direct effects of sympathetic innervation on development of the coronary microvasculature in the absence of hemodynamic load, we grafted avascular fetal rat atrial or ventricular tissue into the anterior eye chamber of host rats which had undergone unilateral superior cervical gangliectomies. Innervation to the contralateral eye chamber remained intact. The grafts were harvested 14 or 35 days later and volume densities (VV) of blood vessels, myocytes, and extracellular matrix were determined using standard point-counting techniques on low power electron micrographs. Graft perfusion and metabolism were assessed simultaneously with thallium-201 and [14C]2 -deoxyglucose uptake, respectively. Innervation did not significantly alter the vascular VV or cellular composition of atrial or ventricular tissue compared to non-innervated tissue after either 14 or 35 days in oculo. Similarly, innervation did not significantly alter graft perfusion or metabolism. We conclude that sympathetic innervation does not directly influence the growth of the microvasculature or myocardial metabolism in hemodynamically unloaded, developing heart tissue. 

Received 27 February 1995; accepted in final form 28 June 1995.
APS Manuscript Number H183-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Heart Circ. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 30 July 1995.