What is the function of pericytes in the central nervous system?
The pericyte is a perivascular cell type that encapsulates the microvasculature of the brain and spinal cord. Pericytes play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and have a multitude of important functions in the brain.
How do pericytes contract?
Pericytes possess contractile proteins including alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), tropomyosin, and myosin which give rise to their contractile ability (Rucker et al., 2000; Alarcon-Martinez et al., 2018).
Do all blood vessels have pericytes?
Pericyte coverage of blood vessels also varies among the tissues. This is not necessarily surprising, because vascular cells acquire specialized characteristics in different organs, based on the functions of each organ.
What are cardiac pericytes?
Cardiac pericytes are abundantly found in the heart, but they are relatively understudied. Currently, their importance is emerging in cardiovascular homeostasis and dysfunction due to their pleiotropism. They are known to play key roles in vascular tone and vascular integrity as well as angiogenesis.
Where do pericytes for the new capillary loop come from?
For example, pericytes can develop from the neurocrest in the forebrain and cardiac tracts (Bergwerff et al., 1998; Etchevers et al., 2002). Most commonly described and best understood, though, is their origin from mesenchymal stem cells (Creazzo et al., 1998).
Are pericytes smooth muscle cells?
Blood vessels are composed of two interacting cell types. Endothelial cells form the inner lining of the vessel wall, and perivascular cells—referred to as pericytes, vascular smooth muscle cells or mural cells—envelop the surface of the vascular tube.
What is the role of pericytes in the neurovascular unit?
The exact role of pericytes in the neurovascular unit in the adult brain and during brain aging remains, however, elusive. Using adult viable pericyte-deficient mice, we show that pericyte loss leads to brain vascular damage … Pericytes play a key role in the development of cerebral microcirculation.
What is the role of pericytes in the adult brain?
Pericytes play a key role in the development of cerebral microcirculation. The exact role of pericytes in the neurovascular unit in the adult brain and during brain aging remains, however, elusive.
What happens to the capillary basement membrane when pericytes are deficient?
Pericyte-deficient mice also exhibited reductions in the capillary basement membrane proteins collagen IV and vascular laminin, as shown by immunoblotting of the isolated brain microvessels ( Figures S3 G and S3H), consistent with the role of pericytes in basement membrane formation ( Díaz-Flores et al., 2009 ).
Does age-dependent vascular damage precede neurons degeneration in pericyte-deficient mice?
We show that age-dependent vascular damage in pericyte-deficient mice precedes neuronal degenerative changes, learning and memory impairment, and the neuroinflammatory response.