Calcium transients in astrocyte endfeet cause cerebrovascular constrictions

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is coupled to neuronal activity and is imaged in vivo to map brain activation. CBF is also modified by afferent projection fibres that release vasoactive neurotransmitters in the perivascular region, principally on the astrocyte endfeet that outline cerebral blood vessels. However, the role of astrocytes in the regulation of cerebrovascular tone remains uncertain. Here we determine the impact of intracellular Ca(2+) concentrations ([Ca(2+)](i)) in astrocytes on the diameter of small arterioles by using two-photon Ca(2+) uncaging to increase [Ca(2+)](i). Vascular constrictions occurred when Ca(2+) waves evoked by uncaging propagated into the astrocyte endfeet and caused large increases in [Ca(2+)](i). The vasoactive neurotransmitter noradrenaline increased [Ca(2+)](i) in the astrocyte endfeet, the peak of which preceded the onset of arteriole constriction. Depressing increases in astrocyte [Ca(2+)](i) with BAPTA inhibited the vascular constrictions in noradrenaline. We find that constrictions induced in the cerebrovasculature by increased [Ca(2+)](i) in astrocyte endfeet are generated through the phospholipase A(2)-arachidonic acid pathway and 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid production. Vasoconstriction by astrocytes is a previously unknown mechanism for the regulation of CBF.     

Pericytes are required for blood-brain barrier integrity during embryogenesis

Vascular endothelial cells in the central nervous system (CNS) form a barrier that restricts the movement of molecules and ions between the blood and the brain. This blood-brain barrier (BBB) is crucial to ensure proper neuronal function and protect the CNS from injury and disease. Transplantation studies have demonstrated that the BBB is not intrinsic to the endothelial cells, but is induced by interactions with the neural cells. Owing to the close spatial relationship between astrocytes and endothelial cells, it has been hypothesized that astrocytes induce this critical barrier postnatally, but the timing of BBB formation has been controversial. Here we demonstrate that the barrier is formed during embryogenesis as endothelial cells invade the CNS and pericytes are recruited to the nascent vessels, over a week before astrocyte generation. Analysing mice with null and hypomorphic alleles of Pdgfrb, which have defects in pericyte generation, we demonstrate that pericytes are necessary for the formation of the BBB, and that absolute pericyte coverage determines relative vascular permeability. We demonstrate that pericytes regulate functional aspects of the BBB, including the formation of tight junctions and vesicle trafficking in CNS endothelial cells. Pericytes do not induce BBB-specific gene expression in CNS endothelial cells, but inhibit the expression of molecules that increase vascular permeability and CNS immune cell infiltration. These data indicate that pericyte-endothelial cell interactions are critical to regulate the BBB during development, and disruption of these interactions may lead to BBB dysfunction and neuroinflammation during CNS injury and disease.     

Evidence for two populations of excitatory receptors for noradrenaline on arteriolar smooth muscle

We have recorded the responses of arteriolar smooth muscle cells to iontophoretically applied noradrenaline. Records of both muscle movement and muscle membrane potential were made. We found that two distinct types of response could be detected, depending on the position of the noradrenaline micropipette. One type of response consisted of a localised constriction near the noradrenaline source: this effect could be abolished by the alpha-antagonist phentolamine and was not associated with a change in arteriolar membrane potential. The other type of response was a depolarisation similar to the excitatory junction potentials (e.j.ps) produced by sumpathetic nerve stimulation. These observations suggest that there are two populations of receptors for noradrenaline on arterioles, and could explain the paradoxical failure of alpha-antagonists to block neuromuscular transmission at some sutonomic end organs such as the vas deferens, arteries and arterioles.     

Pericytes regulate the blood-brain barrier

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) consists of specific physical barriers, enzymes and transporters, which together maintain the necessary extracellular environment of the central nervous system (CNS). The main physical barrier is found in the CNS endothelial cell, and depends on continuous complexes of tight junctions combined with reduced vesicular transport. Other possible constituents of the BBB include extracellular matrix, astrocytes and pericytes, but the relative contribution of these different components to the BBB remains largely unknown. Here we demonstrate a direct role of pericytes at the BBB in vivo. Using a set of adult viable pericyte-deficient mouse mutants we show that pericyte deficiency increases the permeability of the BBB to water and a range of low-molecular-mass and high-molecular-mass tracers. The increased permeability occurs by endothelial transcytosis, a process that is rapidly arrested by the drug imatinib. Furthermore, we show that pericytes function at the BBB in at least two ways: by regulating BBB-specific gene expression patterns in endothelial cells, and by inducing polarization of astrocyte end-feet surrounding CNS blood vessels. Our results indicate a novel and critical role for pericytes in the integration of endothelial and astrocyte functions at the neurovascular unit, and in the regulation of the BBB.     

Gravitational haemodynamics and oedema prevention in the giraffe

Because it is so tall, the giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, provides an important animal model for investigating adaptive mechanisms to orthostatic (gravitational) pressure changes. Previous physiological studies of the giraffe have concentrated on arterial blood pressures in the heart and neck. Briefly, these investigations revealed that arterial pressure near the giraffe heart is about twice that in humans, to provide more normal blood pressure and perfusion to the brain. Another important question is that of how giraffes avoid pooling of blood and tissue fluid (oedema) in dependent tissues of their extremities. As monitored by radiotelemetry, the blood and tissue fluid pressures that govern transcapillary exchange vary greatly with exercise. These pressures, combined with a tight skin layer, move fluid upward against gravity. Other mechanisms that prevent oedema include precapillary vasoconstriction and low permeability of capillaries to plasma proteins.     

Glial and neuronal control of brain blood flow

Blood flow in the brain is regulated by neurons and astrocytes. Knowledge of how these cells control blood flow is crucial for understanding how neural computation is powered, for interpreting functional imaging scans of brains, and for developing treatments for neurological disorders. It is now recognized that neurotransmitter-mediated signalling has a key role in regulating cerebral blood flow, that much of this control is mediated by astrocytes, that oxygen modulates blood flow regulation, and that blood flow may be controlled by capillaries as well as by arterioles. These conceptual shifts in our understanding of cerebral blood flow control have important implications for the development of new therapeutic approaches.     

电刺激束缚小鼠应激诱发胃溃疡及其机制的初步探讨

用电刺激躯体束缚的口唇部建立应生胃溃疡模型，以阿尔新兰－ＭｇＣｌ２洗脱法测定胃壁粘液量，研究安定、苯巴比妥钠、可的松、酚妥拉明、异丙上腺素、阿托品和乙醇对溃疡发生的影响，结果表明，安定、苯巴比妥负伤 异丙肾上腺素显著抑制溃疡发生；阿托品和乙醉可明显使溃疡加剧；酚托拉明和可的松对溃疡没有影响，模型动物胃壁粘液量与对照组比较以及所有药物对模型动物胃壁粘液量却没有明显变化，提示，电刺激束缚应激胃溃疡的发     

Capillary endothelial cells express basic fibroblast growth factor, a mitogen that promotes their own growth

Angiogenesis, the formation of new capillaries, which is observed in embryonic and injured tissue and is particularly prominent in the vicinity of solid tumours, involves the migration and proliferation of capillary endothelial cells. It is probably triggered by agents, such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), thought to be released from tissues adjacent to proliferating capillaries. As well as being a potent inducer of cell division in capillary endothelial cells in vitro, bFGF can act as an angiogenic agent in vivo. It is present in a wide variety of richly vascularized tissues including brain, pituitary, retina, adrenal gland, kidney, corpus luteum, placenta and various tumours. So far, however, the normal bFGF-producing cell species in these tissues have not been identified. We report here that capillary endothelial cells express the bFGF gene, that they produce and release bFGF and that bFGF derived from them can stimulate the proliferation of capillary endothelial cells. We conclude that bFGF can act as a self-stimulating growth factor for capillary endothelial cells, and that it is possible that the formation of new capillaries is induced by capillary endothelial cells themselves.     

Modulation of lateral geniculate neurone excitability by noradrenaline microiontophoresis or locus coeruleus stimulation

The dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGNd) receives afferents from the brainstem which regulate its capacity to transmit visual information from the retina to the striate cortex. One such pathway consists of noradrenaline (NA)-containing fibres originating in the locus coeruleus (LC). These provide a dense, uniform, noradrenergic innervation of the LGNd. Electrical stimulation in the LC region has been reported to enhance the responsiveness of LGNd neurones to afferent excitation. Although this effect was abolished when brain NA stores were pharmacologically depleted, it was not established as a direct action of NA on LGNd neurones because of the widespread distribution of LC fibres to many parts of the brain and the long latency of the response. Recently, we observed that NA, applied locally by microiontophoresis with low ejection currents, produced a delayed increase in the firing rate of most spontaneously active LGNd neurones, an effect selectively blocked by alpha-adrenoceptor antagonists. We show here that microiontophoretic NA can mimic the ability of LC stimulation to enhance the synaptic excitation of LGNd neurones. As neither NA nor LC stimulation activated LGNd neurones in the absence of synaptic or glutamate-induced excitation, both appear to act through a neuromodulatory mechanism. The postsynaptic alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist WB-4101 blocks the facilitation produced by locally applied NA and by coeruleo-geniculate pathway stimulation, providing evidence for pharmacological identity of the two effects.     

Brain metabolism dictates the polarity of astrocyte control over arterioles

Calcium signalling in astrocytes couples changes in neural activity to alterations in cerebral blood flow by eliciting vasoconstriction or vasodilation of arterioles. However, the mechanism for how these opposite astrocyte influences provide appropriate changes in vessel tone within an environment that has dynamic metabolic requirements remains unclear. Here we show that the ability of astrocytes to induce vasodilations over vasoconstrictions relies on the metabolic state of the rat brain tissue. When oxygen availability is lowered and astrocyte calcium concentration is elevated, astrocyte glycolysis and lactate release are maximized. External lactate attenuates transporter-mediated uptake from the extracellular space of prostaglandin E(2), leading to accumulation and subsequent vasodilation. In conditions of low oxygen concentration extracellular adenosine also increases, which blocks astrocyte-mediated constriction, facilitating dilation. These data reveal the role of metabolic substrates in regulating brain blood flow and provide a mechanism for differential astrocyte control over cerebrovascular diameter during different states of brain activation.     

T cells become licensed in the lung to enter the central nervous system

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) and the environment of the central nervous system (CNS) guard the nervous tissue from peripheral immune cells. In the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis, myelin-reactive T-cell blasts are thought to transgress the BBB and create a pro-inflammatory environment in the CNS, thereby making possible a second autoimmune attack that starts from the leptomeningeal vessels and progresses into the parenchyma. Using a Lewis rat model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, we show here that contrary to the expectations of this concept, T-cell blasts do not efficiently enter the CNS and are not required to prepare the BBB for immune-cell recruitment. Instead, intravenously transferred T-cell blasts gain the capacity to enter the CNS after residing transiently within the lung tissues. Inside the lung tissues, they move along and within the airways to bronchus-associated lymphoid tissues and lung-draining mediastinal lymph nodes before they enter the blood circulation from where they reach the CNS. Effector T cells transferred directly into the airways showed a similar migratory pattern and retained their full pathogenicity. On their way the T cells fundamentally reprogrammed their gene-expression profile, characterized by downregulation of their activation program and upregulation of cellular locomotion molecules together with chemokine and adhesion receptors. The adhesion receptors include ninjurin 1, which participates in T-cell intravascular crawling on cerebral blood vessels. We detected that the lung constitutes a niche not only for activated T cells but also for resting myelin-reactive memory T cells. After local stimulation in the lung, these cells strongly proliferate and, after assuming migratory properties, enter the CNS and induce paralytic disease. The lung could therefore contribute to the activation of potentially autoaggressive T cells and their transition to a migratory mode as a prerequisite to entering their target tissues and inducing autoimmune disease.     

Saccadic oscillations facilitate ocular perfusion from the avian pecten

THE evolution of the eye is constrained by two conflicting requirements--good vascular perfusion of the retina, and an optical path through the retina that is unobstructed by blood vessels. Birds are interesting in that they have higher metabolic rates and thicker retinas than mammals, but have no retinal blood vessels. Nutrients and oxygen must thus reach the neurons of the inner retina either from the choroid through 300 micron of metabolically very active retina, or from the pecten, a pleated vascular structure protruding from the head of the optic nerve into the vitreous chamber, and more than a centimetre away from some retinal neurons. Despite the diffusional distance involved, several lines of evidence indicate that the pecten is the primary source of nutrients for the inner retina: the presence of an oxygen gradient from pecten to retina, the large surface area produced by macroscopic folds and by microscopic infoldings of the luminal and external surfaces of the capillary endothelium, extrusion of circulating fluorescein, high content of carbonic anhydrase and alkaline phosphatase, and retinal impairments after pecten ablation. Another peculiarity of birds, their saccadic oscillations, occur with a large cyclotor-sional component during every saccadic eye movement. In different species, saccades, which occur at intervals of 0.5-40 s, have up to 13 oscillations with frequencies of 15-30 Hz and ampliá-tudes of about 10 degrees. Therefore, as much as 12% of some birds' total viewing time may be subject to the image instability caused by the oscillations. Using fluorescein angiography, we show here that during every saccade, the pecten acts as an agitator which propels perfusate towards the central retina much more effectively than is observed during intersaccadic intervals.     

Central serotonergic nerves project to the pial vessels of the brain

Serotonin is strongly implicated in the aetiology of several cerebrovascular (circulatory) diseases, including stroke, migraine and vasospasm. Previous studies have suggested the existence of an indoleaminergic system of perivascular nerves in large cerebral arteries of the lamprey. In addition, some authors have observed that cerebral arteries (such as the vertebrobasilar system of the rabbit) and microvessels may take up serotonin and 5-hydroxytryptophan in various species. However, neither large cerebral arteries nor microvessels (primarily capillaries) directly control, or change, cerebral blood flow; as in other vascular beds, it is the arterioles and small arteries that are the major resistance elements. We report here on the presence of a central serotonergic innervation of pial arteries and arterioles in the rat, using immunocytochemical and neurochemical techniques. The fibres seem to have a central neuronal origin, emanating from both median and dorsal raphé nuclei. This perivascular serotonergic innervation may have a role both in the normal regulation of the cerebral circulation and in pathological conditions.     

Astrocytes induce blood-brain barrier properties in endothelial cells

The highly impermeable tight junctions between endothelial cells forming the capillaries and venules in the central nervous system (CNS) of higher vertebrates are thought to be responsible for the blood-brain barrier that impedes the passive diffusion of solutes from the blood into the extracellular space of the CNS. The ability of CNS endothelial cells to form a blood-brain barrier is not intrinsic to these cells but instead is induced by the CNS environment: Stewart and Wiley demonstrated that when avascular tissue from 3-day-old quail brain is transplanted into the coelomic cavity of chick embryos, the chick endothelial cells that vascularize the quail brain grafts form a competent blood-brain barrier; on the other hand, when avascular embryonic quail coelomic grafts are transplanted into embryonic chick brain, the chick endothelial cells that invade the mesenchymal tissue grafts form leaky capillaries and venules. It is, however, not known which cells in the CNS are responsible for inducing endothelial cells to form the tight junctions characteristic of the blood-brain barrier. Astrocytes are the most likely candidates since their processes form endfeet that collectively surround CNS microvessels. In this report we provide direct evidence that astrocytes are capable of inducing blood-brain barrier properties in non-neural endothelial cells in vivo.     

Mizolastine（MIZ）对趾叶炎小鼠趾部组织VEGF表达的影响

用组织化学和免疫组化的染色方法对趾叶炎发生过程中正常组、造模组和低、中、高剂量治疗组小鼠趾部组织血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）表达水平、血管数量和肥大细胞及其脱颗粒的动态变化进行了研究.结果表明,造模组小鼠在免疫后14d,VEGF表达均达到一个峰值,而后表达开始减弱,21d后表达开始增强,均极显著高于同一时相的正常组（P〈0.01）.低、中、高剂量治疗组的VEGF表达均极显著低于同一时相造模组,其中,低剂量治疗组同一时相均极显著高于正常组（P〈0.01）,中剂量治疗组除免疫后前3个时相显著外（P〈0.05）,免疫后35d与正常组不显著（P〉0.05）,高剂量治疗组除免疫后14d显著外（P〈0.05）,其余各时相均与正常组不显著（P〉0.05）,治疗各组小鼠的VEGF表达水平随药物浓度的增大和免疫时间的延长而逐渐减弱;真皮内出现了许多增生的小动脉,管壁增厚,管腔内有血栓形成,且血管形成与肥大细胞及其脱颗粒的变化均与VEGF的表达趋势相吻合.Mizo-lastine（MIZ）可以显著抑制肥大细胞脱颗粒、VEGF的表达和血管形成.     

基于多重分形去趋势波动分析的视网膜图像分割

引入善于描述非稳定图像的多重去趋势波动理论,提出一种基于多重去趋势分析的视网膜图像分割方法.该方法采用直方图均衡化对图像进行预处理来增强血管影像,然后采用多重去趋势波动分析计算图像的广义赫斯特指数,并利用血管指数特性来分割血管,最后用形态学进行图像后处理,得到最终的血管图像.基于DIARETDE0和DIARETDE1两个数据库进行实验.结果表明,该方法在处理视网膜病变图像时有较好的完整性和连通性,能够较好地提取血管主体,具有很好的临床应用价值.     

Atrial natriuretic peptide causes pre-glomerular vasodilatation and post-glomerular vasoconstriction in rat kidney

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) can be extracted from rat hearts, and is found to increase fluid excretion by the kidneys when injected into test animals. The mechanism of ANP action is still unclear. ANP may reduce sodium reabsorption in the renal tubules, but it is also known that it increases the rate of glomerular filtration in the kidney, and relaxes preparations of smooth muscle, including one made from arteries that supply the kidney. To clarify its mode of action, we have studied directly the effects of semi-purified and synthetic ANP on blood vessels in the kidney of anaesthetized rats. We found that ANP causes a vasodilatation of the blood vessels which supply the glomeruli and a vasoconstriction of the arterioles which drain them. This substantiates the finding that increased filtration pressure participates in the natriuretic response.     

EDRF coordinates the behaviour of vascular resistance vessels

Constriction of vascular smooth muscle in response to the stimulus of raised intravascular pressure--the myogenic response--represents a positive feedback mechanism which, if unopposed, could theoretically lead to instability in the intact circulation. Dilation in response to increased intraluminal flow would provide an opposing feedback mechanism which could confer overall stability. Flow-dependent dilation in conduit vessels is mediated by endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), but the relationship between flow and EDRF activity has not been studied in resistance vessels in situ. We here demonstrate that EDRF can coordinate the aggregate hydrodynamic properties of an intact network. Under control conditions, EDRF maintains a fourth-power relationship between diameter and flow so that the pressure gradient in each vessel asymptotically approaches a constant value at high flow rates. Basal EDRF release may also maintain a similar spatial distribution of flow at different flow rates, even under conditions of moderate pharmacological constriction.     

中缝背核对躯体反射放电的影响

作者在清醒麻痹的猫上进行中缝背核对躯体反射放电影响的实验。结果表明:电刺激猫中缝背核(DR)对躯体反射放电活动具有明显地抑制作用;对躯体伤害性刺激引起的丘脑束旁核(PF)诱发单位放电活动亦具有明显地抑制作用。