Morphometry of connective tissue in equine heart

Abstract

This work aimed to study the proportion of connective tissue in the fraction right and left of the ventricular heart muscle of equine PSI, searching, through of the morphometry, data in the interrelation between the connective tissue and the muscular tissue, for the knowledge of the functional relationships of the heart structure. It was used equine hearts, males, between 20 and 120 old months, without heart alterations. The material originated from of the medial portion of the ventricle from both the right face and the left, according to the conventional techniques and stained with Picrosirius red, Fucsina-Paraldeido associated to Gomori's Tricrome and Masson's Tricrome, to show of the connective fibers. The sheets were analised using Axioscópio Zeiss® coupled to the program of analysis of images KS-400 Zeiss®. The amount of connective tissue in the left ventricle varied from 0,008 to 24,695%; in the right ventricle it varied from 0,029 to 20,921%; in the hearts of equine PSI. The obtained results show that there is a complex net of connective fibers involving the fibers of muscle tissue of the heart and that their amount and disposition is very varied, depending on the studied area, younger animals exhibit low amount of connective tissue, also depending on their physical activity.