Features of the ultrastructure of the skin of white rats 30 days after modeling of portal hypertension

Abstract The problem of skin repair under the conditions of systemic increased pressure in microvessels has a great importance. This is due to the fact that each year the incidence of this pathology has seen an increase during different operations, including plastic surgery. As the compensatory and reparative mechanisms occurring in the skin affected by vascular hyperbaria are still unidentified, the aim of the study was to investigate the features of the ultrastructure of the skin of white rats 30 days after modeling of portal hypertension. Objects of the study were anterior abdominal wall biopsies for electron microscopy research. Our work demonstrated that the skin in intact animals (control group) was of typical structure before the beginning of the experiment and 30 days after a sham operation. Following 30 days modeling of portal hypertension, the ultrastructure of the epidermis was found to be intact, only slight thickening of the horny layer was revealed. However, in the basal epidermocytes, signs of crypts formation by cytolemma were revealed. Moreover, in the epidermocytes of the spinous and granular layers, the mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum channels and ribosomes were almost non-evident. In addition, in the cytoplasm of the fibroblasts, a moderate amount of freely located ribosomes and a moderate number of polymorphic mitochondria were detected, while the lumens of the capillaries of the papillary layer of the dermis were narrowed. We also saw that the swelling of the cytoplasm in endothelial cells resulted in the narrowing of the microvessels lumen. What is more, the subendothelial zone was expanded – which is indicative of endothelial desquamation. Beyond the aforementioned, the nuclei of the endothelial cells were well contoured and had signs of chromatin condensation. Endothelial cells with signs of apoptosis were detected as well.