Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mughal, Amreen
• Nelson, Mark T.
• Hill‐Eubanks, David

Titel

The post‐arteriole transitional zone: a specialized capillary region that regulates blood flow within the CNS microvasculature

Ist Teil von

• The Journal of physiology, 2023-03, Vol.601 (5), p.889-901

Ort / Verlag

England: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The brain is an energy hog, consuming available energy supplies at a rate out of all proportion to its relatively small size. This outsized demand, largely reflecting the unique computational activity of the brain, is met by an ensemble of neurovascular coupling mechanisms that link neuronal activity with local increases in blood delivery. This just‐in‐time replenishment strategy, made necessary by the limited energy‐storage capacity of neurons, complicates the nutrient‐delivery task of the cerebral vasculature, layering on a temporo‐spatial requirement that invites ‐ and challenges ‐ mechanistic interpretation. The centre of gravity of research efforts to disentangle these mechanisms has shifted from an initial emphasis on astrocyte‐arteriole‐level processes to mechanisms that operate on the capillary level, a shift that has brought into sharp focus questions regarding the fine control of blood distribution to active neurons. As these investigations have drilled down into finer reaches of the microvasculature, they have revealed an arteriole‐proximate subregion of CNS capillary networks that serves a regulatory function in directing blood flow into and within downstream capillaries. They have also illuminated differences in researchers’ perspectives on the vascular structures and identity of mural cells in this region that impart the vasomodulatory effects that control blood distribution. In this review, we highlight the regulatory role of a variably named region of the microvasculature, referred to here as the post‐arteriole transition zone, in channeling blood flow within CNS capillary networks, and underscore the contribution of dynamically contractile perivascular mural cell – generally, but not universally, recognized as pericytes – to this function. figure legend Angioarchitecture of the CNS vasculature, presenting a high‐altitude view of the post‐arteriolar transition zone (grey‐shaded region) – a major regulator of blood flow in the brain and retina.