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Morphological and anatomical characteristics of the posterior intercostal arteries have revived interest in their branching networks. Collateral supply between intercostal spaces is extensive due to anastomoses, although the data about the quantitative description of the branching networks in the existing literature are rather limited. The presence of collateral network between branches of the posterior intercostal arteries has been studied on forty-three Thiel-embalmed human cadavers. A network-based approach has been used to quantify the measured vascular branching patterns. Connections between branches of the same or adjacent posterior intercostal artery were identified. The non-anastomosing branches coursing in the intercostal spaces were also observed and their abundance was higher in comparison to anastomosing vessels. A quantitative analysis of collateral branching networks has revealed the highest density of vessels located close to the costal angle and most of the anastomosing branches were found between the fourth and tenth intercostal space. Anastomoses within the same posterior intercostal artery were more frequent in higher intercostal spaces, whereas in the lower intercostal spaces more connections were established between neighboring intercostal arteries. Our results indicate that due to abundant collateral contribution the possibility to cause an ischemic injury is rather low unless there is considerable damage to the blood supply of the trunk or surgical complication leading to ischemia or necrosis. Analyzing the proper course of collateral contributions of the posterior intercostal arteries may support further directions regarding the safest place for percutaneous transthoracic interventions, thoracocentesis, and lung biopsy.

During the routine dissection of an 87-year-old Caucasian male cadaver, an accessory inferior thyroid artery originating from the left suprascapular artery was detected. In addition to the existence of inferior and superior thyroid arteries, a third thyroid artery arising from the left suprascapular artery was present at the left of these arteries; this artery was determined as the accessory inferior thyroid artery. Again, the left internal thoracic artery arose from the thyrocervical trunk. The internal thoracic artery originated near the thyrocervical trunk’s origin point and descended vertically. The thyrocervical trunk ended near the medial border of the anterior scalene muscle after giving rise to the inferior thyroid, transverse cervical and suprascapular arteries.

Detailed studies on intramuscular innervation of human thoracic iliocostalis (IC) muscles were done through macroscopic dissection of six sides of three Japanese adult cadavers. Human IC muscles possessed a segmental nature in that muscular segments sequentially originated from individual ribs, although their structure was complex, with many long sequentially overlapping multisegmental bundles and their diverse multilayered insertions. Nerves to IC muscles (NICs) arose metamerically from the spinal nerve at every thoracic axial level. Nerves to IC muscles ran caudally, and their entry points into the fascia of IC muscles were shifted inferiorly by one segment level compared with their origin. Each NIC supplied a few muscular segments that were defined by their costal origin, but the distribution boundary often did not match the muscular segmental boundary. At the distribution boundaries of individual NICs, the muscular layers were often innervated by two NICs from adjacent levels. The level of costal origin of the IC muscular segment was lower than that of the segmental origin of the NIC, with the difference in level, which is one at the higher thoracic region, increasing caudally up to three on average at the lower thoracic region. It is thus noteworthy that while the IC muscles and NICs were both segmental in nature, their segmentations exhibited level discrepancies, which were not coordinated with each other due to their indistinct boundaries as well as the inconsistent differences in level.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of synovial joints in which all articular structures are affected. Evidence suggests that a decreased density in the elastic fiber concentration of the knee capsule is associated with joint hypermobility, a condition associated with OA. However, there is no study that shows a direct relationship between the elastic fiber system and knee OA. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between the elastic fiber density in medial (MCL) and lateral (LCL) collateral ligaments and the severity of OA. The elastic fiber concentration in MCL and LCL were examined in cadaver knees (n = 10; 4 M, 6 F). The elastic fiber density, measured as the concentration of elastic fibers per unit area, was correlated with the severity of OA, which was graded on a 0–16 scale using histologic and macroscopic markers. Among all subjects, elastic fiber concentrations between MCL (mean 15.49% ± 2.49) and LCL (mean 13.93 ± 3.63) showed a significant difference (P = 0.023). There were no inter-gender differences between the elastic fiber concentration in either MCL or LCL. Among all subjects, the severity of OA was found to be correlated negatively with the elastic fiber concentration in both MCL (r = −0.693, P ≤ 0.05) and LCL (r = −0.718, P ≤ 0.05). This is the first study to show a correlation between the elastic fiber system and knee OA.

The autonomic nerve supply of skeletal muscle has become a focus of interest because it is closely related to the adaptation of energy metabolism with aging. We have performed an immunohistochemistry study on tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) using specimens obtained from ten selected elderly cadavers (mean age 83.3 years) in which we examined muscle-innervating nerves (abbreviated “muscle-nerves” hereafter) of ten striated muscles (soleus, infraspinatus, extra-ocular inferior rectus, lateral rectus, superior obliquus, temporalis, orbicularis oculi, posterior cricoarytenoideus, trapezius and genioglossus) and, as a positive control, the submandibular ganglion. We found that the extra-ocular muscles received no or very few TH-positive nerve fibers. Muscle-nerves to the other head and neck muscles contained a few or several TH-positive fibers per section, but their density (proportional area of TH-positive fibers per nerve cross-section) was one-half to one-third of that in nerves to the soleus or infraspinatus. We did not find nNOS-positive fibers in any of these muscle-nerves. In the head and neck muscles, with the exception of those of the tongue, there appeared to be very few TH-positive nerve fibers along the feeding artery. Consequently, the head and neck muscles seemed to receive much fewer sympathetic nerves than limb muscles. There was no evidence that nNOS-positive nerves contributed to vasodilation of feeding arteries in striated muscles. This site-dependent difference in sympathetic innervation would reflect its commitment to muscle activity. However, we did not find any rules determining the density of nerves according to muscle fiber type and the mode of muscle activity.

Past, present, and future research into hepatic stellate cells (HSCs, also called vitamin A-storing cells, lipocytes, interstitial cells, fat-storing cells, or Ito cells) are summarized and discussed in this review. Kupffer discovered black-stained cells in the liver using the gold chloride method and named them stellate cells (Sternzellen in German) in 1876. Wake rediscovered the cells in 1971 using the same gold chloride method and various modern histological techniques including electron microscopy. Between their discovery and rediscovery, HSCs disappeared from the research history. Their identification, the establishment of cell isolation and culture methods, and the development of cellular and molecular biological techniques promoted HSC research after their rediscovery. In mammals, HSCs exist in the space between liver parenchymal cells (PCs) or hepatocytes and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) of the hepatic lobule, and store 50–80% of all vitamin A in the body as retinyl ester in lipid droplets in the cytoplasm. SCs also exist in extrahepatic organs such as pancreas, lung, and kidney. Hepatic (HSCs) and extrahepatic stellate cells (EHSCs) form the stellate cell (SC) system or SC family; the main storage site of vitamin A in the body is HSCs in the liver. In pathological conditions such as liver fibrosis, HSCs lose vitamin A, and synthesize a large amount of extracellular matrix (ECM) components including collagen, proteoglycan, glycosaminoglycan, and adhesive glycoproteins. The morphology of these cells also changes from the star-shaped HSCs to that of fibroblasts or myofibroblasts.

The increase in autoimmune diseases in recent years has drawn attention back to the thymus, with new approaches to improve and/or restore immune function being investigated. As the primary lymphoid organ responsible for functional T cell development, studies on the pre-/post-natal development of this organ and T lymphocytes in human and other species are of special interest. During our screening studies we observed structures that had not been described or mentioned previously, and named them “epitheliostromal sheaths”. Associated with these unique structures were also small attached lobules (possibly reflecting the maturational stages of thymic lobules), which the authors consider as markers of histogenesis and the growth of the organ during early childhood; these findings are thus presented to researchers in this field. Approximately 1000 sections prepared from infantile thymic tissues of partial biopsy specimens were immunostained and examined. Specimens were taken from ten patients (with informed consent) in the age range of 4–9 years who underwent surgery due to congenital cardiovascular anomalies but were otherwise normal. Digital images of interest were captured to describe them in detail. Determining the immunophenotype of the compartments in these newly developing lobules assisted us greatly in defining compartments and their growth order. In summary, our findings suggest a niche-based thymus growth mechanism during childhood. We presented our findings, hoping to provide additional insight to researchers aiming to restore thymus function in adulthood and improve its immunological functions.