Abstract

The pathology of pulmonary hypertension in man is based on the migratory behaviour of the vascular smooth muscle cells of the media. In states of chronic hypoxia, as seen in chronic obstructive lung disease and in native highlanders, there is a limited migration of mature-looking muscle into the intima. Here it produces a layer of longitudinal muscle, the formation of muscular tubes and muscularization of pulmonary arterioles. In congenital …