The close correlation between energy supply by blood vessels and energy consumption by cellular processes in the brain is the basis of blood flow-related functional imaging techniques. Regional differences in vascular density can be detected using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging. Therefore, inhomogeneities in vascularization might help to identify anatomically distinct are...

STUDY QUESTION How does the smooth muscle content and differentiation stage of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in endometrial blood vessels change according to the different phases of the menstrual cycle and is this altered in women with menorrhagia? SUMMARY ANSWER The smooth muscle content (as a proportion of the vascular cross-sectional area) of endometrial blood vessels remained uncha...

Corneal oedema with its associated stromal lamellar or fibrillar separation has been proposed as the essential stimulus for corneal vascularization in disease (Cogan, I949). This widely accepted theory was elaborated by Ashton and Cook (I953), who considered that, in addition, a chemical stimulus for vascularization was afforded by a state of "suboxidation" constantly present in corneal tissue....

Background With recent developments in tissue engineering technology, various three-dimensional tissues can be generated now. However, as the tissue thickness increases due to three-dimensionalization, it is difficult to increase the tissue scale without introduction of blood vessels. Main text Many methods for vasculature induction have been reported recently. In this review, we introduced s...

Corticotropin-releasing hormone, is a hypothalamic neuropeptide, responsible not only for the endocrine but also the autonomic, immunological and behavioural responses of mammalian organisms to stress. CRH is also expressed in female reproductive tissues, such as placenta and uterus. Multiple sites within the pregnant uterine cavity express the CRH gene, including the trophoblasts, fetal membra...

Objective: The presence of lymphatic vessels in endometrium has been controversial and recent immunocytochemical studies with routinely paraffin embedded sections revealed lymphatic vessels in basalis and occasionally in functionalis. We aimed to investigate endometrial lymphatic vessels by immunocytochemical staining using cryosections, which provided better and consistent immunostaining for l...

The success of therapeutic vascularization and tissue engineering will rely on our ability to create vascular networks using human cells that can be obtained readily, can be expanded safely ex vivo, and can produce robust vasculogenic activity in vivo. Here we describe the formation of functional microvascular beds in immunodeficient mice by coimplantation of human endothelial and mesenchymal p...

We present a photoacoustic computed tomography investigation on a healthy human finger, to image blood vessels with a focus on vascularity across the interphalangeal joints. The cross-sectional images were acquired using an imager specifically developed for this purpose. The images show rich detail of the digital blood vessels with diameters between 100 μm and 1.5 mm in various orientations and...

Background: Endometriosis is the presence of endometrial glandular and stromal cells outside of the uterine cavity. Our previous study showed that in vitro culture of human endometrial tissue in a three-dimensional (3D) fibrin matrix could mimic the early stages of endometriosis with invasion, gland and stroma formation and sprouting of new vessels. Objective: The objective of the present study...

We show that the distribution of specific antibodies and antibody-secreting cells in the intestine after oral and rectal immunizations corresponds to the vascularization and lymph drainage patterns of the gut. Oral immunizations induce antibody responses along the parts of the intestine connected to the superior mesenteric vessels and lymph ducts, whereas rectal immunizations induce antibody re...