Expression of microvessel associated factors in patients with ankylosing spondylitis in femoral headcartilage and subchondral bone

Objective To investigate the relationship between microvessel and ankylosing spondy litis （AS） through the expression of microvessel in femoral head bone-cartilage and subchondral bone. Methods Seven cases of femoral head in the patients with AS were used as experimental group, 11 cases of osteoarthritis （OA） and 9 cases of rheumatic arthritisc （RA） were served as control group. To detect antibodies against vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF）, CD56 ^＋ and CD68 ^＋ expression in all speci- mens, Leica Qwin high definition image analysis system to detect gray value, semi quantitative assessment. Results Our results show that in the femoral head surface with cartilage of AS microvessel in bone and cartilage interface increased compared with OA （ P 〈 0. 01 ） and RA （ P 〈 0. 05 ）. At the osteochondral junction bone absorption region CD68 ^＋ muhinuclear cells significantly increased compared to OA （P 〈 0. 05 ） and RA （P 〈 0. 01 ）. In AS of the femoral head with no cartilage covering surface, bony destruction increased （P 〈 0. 01 ）. Conclusion Bone-cartilage interface and subchondral bone is the site of inflam mation mainly of AS and microvascular may play an important role in the induction of the inflammatory process, Key words: Ankylosing spondylitis ;  Immunohistochemistry;  Vascular endothelial growth factor