Effect of long-term antihypertensive treatment on cerebrovascular structure and function in hypertensive rats.

Midlife hypertension is an important risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. We investigated the effects of long-term treatment with two classes of antihypertensive drugs to determine whether diverging mechanisms of blood pressure lowering impact the brain differently. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were either left untreated or treated with a calcium channel blocker (amlodipine) or beta blocker (atenolol) until one year of age.

Altered brain fluid management in a rat model of arterial hypertension.

Background: Proper neuronal function is directly dependent on the composition, turnover, and amount of interstitial fluid that bathes the cells. Most of the interstitial fluid is likely to be derived from ion and water transport across the brain capillary endothelium, a process that may be altered in hypertension due to vascular pathologies as endothelial dysfunction and arterial remodelling. In the current study, we investigated the effects of hypertension on the brain for differences in the water homeostasis.

Paravascular spaces: entry to or exit from the brain?

New Findings: What is the topic of this review? In this symposium report, we review the glymphatic clearance from the brain. What advances does it highlight? Evaluation of the evidence indicates that cerebrospinal fluid flows along paravascular spaces at the surface of the brain. However, bulk flow along penetrating arteries into the brain, followed by exit along veins, requires further confirmation.

Blood-brain and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier permeability in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Background: Hypertension is an important risk factor for cerebrovascular disease, including stroke and dementia. Both in humans and animal models of hypertension, neuropathological features such as brain atrophy and oedema have been reported. We hypothesised that cerebrovascular damage resulting from chronic hypertension would manifest itself in a more permeable blood-brain barrier and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier.

Enhanced interstitial fluid drainage in the hippocampus of spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Hypertension is associated with cognitive decline and various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. In animal models of hypertension, many of Alzheimer's disease characteristics are recapitulated, including brain atrophy, cognitive decline, amyloid β accumulation and blood brain barrier dysfunction. Removal of amyloid β and other waste products depends in part on clearance via the brain interstitial fluid (ISF).

Complement C3 on microglial clusters in multiple sclerosis occur in chronic but not acute disease: Implication for disease pathogenesis.

Microglial clusters with C3d deposits are observed in the periplaque of multiple sclerosis (MS) brains and were proposed as early stage of lesion formation. As such they should appear in the brain of MS donors with acute disease but thus far this has not been shown. Using postmortem brain tissue from acute (n = 10) and chronic (n = 15) MS cases we investigated whether C3d+ microglial clusters are part of an acute attack against myelinated axons, which could have implications for disease pathogenesis.