Hemangiopericytoma in Cats
 
Where hemangio refers to the blood vessels, and a pericyte is a type of connective tissue cell, a hemangiopericytoma is metastatic vascular tumor arising from the pericyte cells.
 
A pericyte might best be described as a non-specialized cell. It is one of the original embryonic cells, but instead of taking on a specific function, it remains in its first stage, waiting until it is needed. The function of the pericyte is to differentiate into whatever type of cell the body requires to function, regenerating new tissue as needed. In this case, the pericy ...read more