EFFECT OF THE BENZQUERCIN TREATMENT ON THE CONNECTIVE-TISSUE OF LATHYRITIC MICE - A STUDY BY OPTICAL AND TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY

Vascular pathology is characterized by important alterations of some vessel macromolecular constituants, such as fibrous proteins, collagens and elastin. The purpose of our study was to establish the activity of benzquercin treatment on such alterations of the vascular wall. As experimental model we used lathyrism induced in mice by chronic administration of beta-amino-propionitril (beta-APN). This compound prevents crosslink-formation in elastin and collagen and provokes a disorganisation of the structure and an alteration of the physiological functions of the vascular wall. The connective tissue of the skin is also impaired simultaneously with that of the blood vessels. We compared by optical and transmission electron microscopy the morphological structure of the aorta and the skin of 3 groups of mice : a normal control group, an other which only received the beta-APN alone and a third one which received the beta-APN and the benzquercin treatment. The second group, injected with beta-APN without treatment, showed important alterations of the structure of the aorta as well as of the skin. Both fibrous proteins, collagen and elastin were concerned by these alterations, the consequence of which was an increase of the permeability of the aorta wall demonstrated with the horse-radish peroxydase as a tracer. The third group, injected with beta-APN and treated with the benzquercin, showed much less morphological disorders than the untreated group and the vascular permeability was also close to normal controls. These results are in favour of a corrective effect of benzquercin treatment on fibrous proteins of connective tissue and may represent one of the components of the therapeutic effects observed in the clinical trials of this drug.