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Biomedical subjects

V J Ferrans

Publications and source records attributed to V J Ferrans.

At least 397 records · Page 22Linked to original sources
PubMed1975

The spectrum of degenerative changes in hypertrophied human cardiac muscle cells: an ultrastructural study.

Light and electron microscopic observations were made on cardiac tissues removed at operation from 91 patients with ventricular hypertrophy, including left ventricular myocardium from 16 patients with aortic valvular disease and from 16 patients with asymmetric septal hypertrophy, and crista supraventricularis muscle from 59 patients with congenital heart diseases associated with right ventricular outflow tract obstruction. In all patients the majority of cardiac muscle cells were hypertrophied, had intact myofibrils, and were surrounded by small amounts of fibrous tissue. In 18 (20%) of the 91 patients cardiac muscle cells with a wide spectrum of degenerative changes were present in addition to hyperthrophied, nondegenerated cells. Early degenerative changes consisted of focal myofibrillar lysis, with preferential loss of thick myofilaments, and focal proliferation of tubules of sarcoplasmic reticulum. Cardiac muscle cells with advanced degeneration had extensive myofibrillar damage and a marked decrease in numbers of myofibrils and T-tubules. The most severely degenerated cells showed selective proliferation of organelles, including sarcoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and glycogen, which replaced the contractile elements in the cytoplasm. These findings suggest that degenerated cardiac muscle cells have poor contractile function and may be responsible for impaired cardiac performance in some patients with ventricular hypertrophy. These morphological features appear to represent a final common pathway for degeneration of cardiac muscle cells in a variety of cardiac conditions.

Aortic Valve Insufficiency↗
PubMed1975

The pathology of Tangier disease. A light and electron microscopic study.

Tangier disease (deficiency of high density plasma lipoproteins) is characterized clinically by: low levels of plasma cholesterol; enlarged, orange-yellow to yellow-gray tonsils and, frequently, peripheral neuropathy. Histologic and ultrastructural studies were made of various tissues from 5 patients with Tangier disease, and comparisons were made of these findings with those in the 12 other patients thus far known to have this disease. Deposits of cholesteryl esters were found in: reticuloendothelial cells (foam cells) in tonsils, bone marrow, skin and jejunal submucosa; Schwann cells in peripheral nerves and myenteric plexus; and in nonvascular smooth muscle cells. These deposits appeared electron lucent and intensely birefringent, varied from spherical to crystalline in shape, often were extensively confluent throughout large areas of cytoplasm, and were not limited by membranes. Certain foam cells in bone marrow also contained membrane-limited clusters of lipid particles resembling chylomicrons. The foam cells in Tangier disease differ morphologically from those in numerous lysosomal enzyme deficiency states, particularly Wolman's disease and cholesteryl ester stroage disease, and in proliferative diseases of the reticuloendothelial system in which cholesteryl esters also accumulate in abnormal histiocytes. Morphologic and biochemical data suggest several hypotheses to explain the accumulation of cholesteryl esters in tissues of patients with Tangier disease. Among these hypotheses, the most likely are considered to be the presence in plasma of abnormal lipoprotein particles that are subject to phagocytic removal by reticuloendothelial cells, and the failure of a process that normally removes locally synthesized cholesterol from cells to plasma. (Am J Pathol 78:101-158, 1975)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

The nuclear membranes in hypertrophied human cardiac muscle cells.

Nuclear membranes of cardiac muscle cells were studied in 134 patients with cardiac hypertrophy of various causes. Abnormalities observed consisted of: a) increased foldings and convolutions; b) nuclear pseudoinclusions formed by cytoplasmic organelles protruding into saccular invaginations of the nuclear membranes, and c) intranuclear tubules. The increased foldings and convolutions of the nuclear membranes and the nuclear pseudoinclusions appear to result from synthesis of nuclear membranes in excess of that needed to accommodate the increase in nuclear volume which occurs in hypertrophy. Intranuclear tubules were found in 6 patients and consisted of tubular invaginations, 400 to 650 A in diameter, of the inner nuclear membranes into the nucleoplasm. Some of these tubules were straight and cylindrical, and were associated with a peripheral layer of marginated chromatin; others were not associated with chromatin, appeared coiled and followed irregular courses. Intranuclear tubules in cardiac muscle cells probably represent an extreme cellular response to the stimulus of hypertrophy.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Tuberous xanthoma in homozygous type II hyperlipoproteinemia. A histologic, histochemical, and electron microscopical study.

Histologic, histochemical, and ultrastructural studies of a tuberous xanthoma from a patient with homozygous type II hyperlipoproteinemia showed that all of the lipid was within histiocytic foam cells; no lipid was identified in interstitial regions or in blood vessels. Primitive mesenchymal cells, elongated perivascular and fibroblast-like cells, and lysosome-filled macrophages also were present within the xanthoma, indicating possible stages in the evolution of dermal mesenchymal cells into mature, cholesterol-rich foam cells. Morphologically, the lipid was in four different forms: large droplets, which were the dominant form, and membrane-bound crystals, concentric lamellar bodies, and ceroid. The paucity of membrane-bound lipid forms, relative to the abundant free lipid droplets, indicated that lysosomal digestion was a minor metabolic pathway for the intracellular metabolism of lipid in the xanthoma. Thus, nonlysosomal lipid storage in foam cells is a characteristic tissue response to the underlying metabolic defect in type II hyperlipoproteinemia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1974

Intracytoplasmic junctions in cardiac muscle cells.

JUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES FORMED BY TWO PARTS OF THE PLASMA MEMBRANE OF THE SAME CARDIAC MUSCLE CELL WERE OBSERVED IN VENTRICULAR MYOCARDIUM OF: a) patients with neoplasms, aortic valvular disease or idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis and b) dogs subjected to prolonged normothermic anoxic cardiac arrest. Most of these structures had features of desmosomes; other, more complex structures had components with features of desmosomes, fasciae adherentes and nexuses, and, therefore, resembled intercalated discs. These intracytoplasmic junctions were localized to: a) the peripheral cytoplasm at the sides or ends of cells, b) narrow invaginations of plasma membranes, c) narrow zones of deep, broad plasmalemmal invaginations and d) narrow branches of T tubules. In patients with idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis or aortic valvular disease and in the dogs subjected to anoxic cardiac arrest, intracytoplasmic junctions were observed in hypertrophied or degenerated muscle cells which were located in areas of fibrosis and which showed loss of contact with adjacent cells. In patients with neoplasms, intracyto-plasmic junctions were found in degenerated cells which were located in areas of interstitial edema and which also showed loss of contact with adjacent cells. Our observations suggest that remodeling of cell surfaces following loss of intercellular contact is the most likely mechanism of formation of intracytoplasmic junctions.

Animals↗