Comparative microscopic study of the ovarian blood vessels

The present study puts forth the morphometric analysis of modifications that occur in the ovarian structures (stroma, parenchyma, blood vessels) before and after menopause onset. Our study was performed on 30 human ovary specimens from patients with no history of genital pathology that were split in two groups (15 ovaries harvested from fertile women and 15 ovaries harvested from women at menopause). The specimens were processed following the classic histological technique of paraffin embedding and stained using Hematoxylin-Eosin technique and trichromic Goldner-Szeckelly technique. The samples were examined and assessed using Nikon E-600 light microscope. The images captured by computer were processed using LUCIA G 4.10 software. To evaluate the histological modifications, we chose the following parameters: Area Fraction of blood vessels and Circularity of blood vessels. The study shows that modifications of the ovary components are synchronized. The vascular changes that occur after menopause onset lead to a poor vascular supply of all ovarian components: germinal epithelium, ovarian follicles and ovarian stroma. The comparative morphometric analysis on premenopause and postmenopause ovarian specimens sustains the idea that the ovarian involution starts from the ovarian vessels, which are the first structures affected by hyaline degeneration.