Cerebral micro-vasculature

In addition to the endothelial cells, the cerebral micro-vasculature (Figure 13.3) also contains pericytes (phagocytic cells) located on the brain side of the endothelium, which share a common basement membrane with the endothelial cell. There are about 3 endothelial cells for every pericyte. They probably play an important role in drag passage across the BBB, but have not been studied very extensively. In the brain,... 

Kooli, A., Keimorvant-Duchemin, E., Sermlaub, F., Bossolasco, M., Hou, X., Honore, J.C., Deimery, P.A., Sapieha, P., Varma, D.R., Lachapelle, P., Zhu, T., Tremblay, S., Hardy, P., Jain, K., Balazy, M., Chemtob, S. (2008). Trani -arachidonic acids induce a heme-oxygenase-dependent vasorelaxation of cerebral micro vasculature. Free Rad. Biol. Med. 44 815-25. 

Using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, the gene product encoding for CB, receptors has been located in renal endothelial cells, mesenteric resistance arterioles, and cerebral micro vessels, which is consistent with the expression of CB, receptors in the vasculature (Deutsch et al., 1997 Darker et al., 1998 Randall et al., 1999). Others have also identified mRNA in human endothelial cells (Sugiura et al., 1998 Liu et al., 2000) and Liu et al. (2000) have identified CB, receptor binding sites by radioligand studies. Similarly, immunoreactivity to the CB, receptor has been identified on human saphenous vein endothelial cells (Bilfinger et al., 1998). 

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