Morphometry of structural preservation of tunica media in aged and hypertensive human intracerebral arteries.

Abstract

Although both hypertension and age were significant risk factors for medial smooth muscle cell necrosis, hypertension was relatively more significant. Medial smooth muscle cells of the perforating arteries in the basal ganglia were more vulnerable than those of the medullary arteries. Cerebral small arteries in subjects with severe atherosclerosis of the carotid and major cerebral arteries (hypertension in eight of nine subjects) may have been protected from extensive loss of medial smooth muscles presumably because of both high serum cholesterol and decreased wall tensile stress associated with reduced blood perfusion due to severe atherosclerotic stenosis.