Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Vascular biology: Brain vessels squeezed to death

I have been writing about these pericytes being one of the neuronal cascade of death problems since Sept. 2011.
What is your doctor doing to solve the problem?
Image from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/images_article/nature13217-f1.jpg
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/images_article/nature13217-f1.jpg
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13217.html
Nature
doi:10.1038/nature13217
Published online


A study finds that contractile cells that surround the capillary vessels of the brain control the blood supply to healthy neurons, and that their death may aggravate brain injury by strangling vessels.

2 comments:

  1. This news is HUGH. The pericytes relax and let more blood flow a second before muscles react after a mouse's whiskers are touched! A second is an enormous amount of time relative the speed the brain takes to send a message. Pericytes strangling capillaries is probably one of the major culprits in the neuronal cascade of death. Let's cross our fingers and hope this avenue pans out.

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    Replies
    1. I'm stealing the Pericytes strangling capillaries term. Its quite evocative and pithy.

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