Abstract

The astrocyte, one of the glial cells, plays many functional roles. These include provision of nutrients from blood vessels to neurons, supply of neurotransmitters and support of blood–brain barrier (BBB) integrity. Astrocytes are known to support the integrity of BBB through maintenance of the tight junction between endothelial cells of blood vessels. However, evidence of its direct contribution to BBB is lacking owing to technical limitations. In this study, astrocytic endfeet covering blood vessels were removed by the laser ablation method with two photon laser scanning microscopy in in vivo mouse brain, and the re-covering of blood vessels with the astrocytic endfeet was observed in about half of the cases. Blood vessels kept their integrity without astrocytic endfoot covers: leakage of plasma marker dyes, Evans Blue or dextran-conjugated fluorescein, was not observed from stripped blood vessels, while ablation of vascular walls induced extravasation of Evans Blue. These results suggest that the astrocytic endfeet covering blood vessels do not contribute to the immediate BBB barrier.

Details

Title
Astrocytic endfeet re-cover blood vessels after removal by laser ablation
Author
Kubotera Hideaki 1 ; Ikeshima-Kataoka Hiroko 1 ; Hatashita Yoshiki 1 ; Allegra Mascaro Anna Letizia 2 ; Pavone, Francesco Saverio 3 ; Inoue Takafumi 1 

 Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience, Tokyo, Japan (GRID:grid.5290.e) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9975) 
 University of Florence, European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, Florence, Italy (GRID:grid.8404.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 2304); National Research Council, Neuroscience Institute, Pisa, Italy (GRID:grid.5326.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 1940 4177) 
 University of Florence, European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, Florence, Italy (GRID:grid.8404.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 2304) 
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Feb 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2350322748
Copyright
This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.