Capillary pericytes regulate cerebral blood flow in health and disease.

Journal article

Increases in brain blood flow, evoked by neuronal activity, power neural computation and form the basis of BOLD (blood-oxygen-level-dependent) functional imaging. Whether blood flow is controlled solely by arteriole smooth muscle, or also by capillary pericytes, is controversial. We demonstrate that neuronal activity and the neurotransmitter glutamate evoke the release of messengers that dilate capillaries by actively relaxing pericytes. Dilation is mediated by prostaglandin E2, but requires ...

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Authors: Hall, C; Reynell, C; Gesslein, B; Hamilton, N; Mishra, A

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Nature
• Volume: 508
• Issue: 7494
• Pages: 55-60
• Publication date: 2014-04-01
• DOI: 10.1038/nature13165
• EISSN: 1476-4687
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• Language: English
• Keywords: Glutamic Acid; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Arterioles; Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic Acids; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Dinoprostone; Male; Cell Death; Cerebellum; Rats; Female; Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; Stroke; Vasoconstriction; Rats, Wistar; Blood-Brain Barrier; Animals; Cerebrovascular Circulation; Pericytes; Nitric Oxide; Functional Neuroimaging; Brain Ischemia; Capillaries; Signal Transduction; Receptors, Glutamate; Vasodilation; Mice; In Vitro Techniques; Cerebral Cortex