Involvement of internal elastic lamina in development of induced cerebral aneurysms in rats

To elucidate the role of the internal elastic lamina in the development of cerebral aneurysm, the bifurcation of the anterior cerebral artery and olfactory artery was histologically studied in control and experimental rats treated with unilateral carotid ligation and renal hypertension. Various stages of aneurysm formation were compared, and it was found that early aneurysmal changes were always present just distal to the apical intimal pad on the anterior cerebral artery side. The internal elastic lamina was thinned and fragmented just distal to the pad even in the very early stage of aneurysm formation when the medial layer was still present. In control rats, the internal elastic lamina had a tendency to thin and fragment at the site where aneurysms would develop in experimental rats. Our study shows that changes of the internal elastic lamina were present just distal to the pad even in control rats, which never develop cerebral aneurysms. Under hemodynamic stress augmented by experimental treatments, further degenerative changes of the internal elastic lamina and involvement of the medial layer are considered to occur and result in aneurysm formation there.