[Strongly succinate dehydrogenase-reactive blood vessels (SSV) in various neuromuscular diseases]

The strongly succinate dehydrogenase-reactive blood vessels (SSV) are shown to have increased numbers of enlarged mitochondria in smooth muscle cells of the vessel wall on electron microscopy. They are seen in biopsied skeletal muscles from patients with mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) at high frequency. The present study was done to examine the incidence of SSV in biopsied muscles from various neuromuscular diseases. Among 107 patients with mitochondrial encephalomyopathies (MEM) including 50 with chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO), 7 with myoclonus epilepsy with ragged-red fibers (MERRF), and 50 with MELAS, SSV were seen in nearly a half of the patients, and comprised approximately 24% of small arteries. On the other hand, SSV in 100 patients with various neuromuscular diseases other than MEM were exceptional, and only one of 8 patients with myotonic dystrophy had SSV. These findings suggest that the SSV are induced by functional abnormality of mitochondria in smooth muscle cells, and that an identification of the SSV is an additional crucial evidence to make a pathological diagnosis of MEM.