Presence and Distribution of the Vascularisation of Aortic Media in Some Mammals

It is well known that the large caliber vessels, the nutrition of the wall differs in the internal part in comparison to the external one. In the present study we assessed the presence and distribution of vascularisation of aortic media in 3 species: lamb, rabbit and chinchilla. Samples were harvested from a group of 3 animals for each species. After histological processing, we stained the sections and assessed the presence and distribution of vasa vasorum. In lamb, blood vessels were present in the media of the first aortic segments (with a larger caliber), and starting with abdominal descending aorta they were absent. In rabbit and chinchilla, blood vessels were not present in tunica media. The present study shows that vasa vasorum are present only in tunica media of arteries exceeding a certain caliber.