In understanding the role of the neurovascular unit as both a biomarker and target for disease interventions, it is vital to appreciate how the function of different components of this unit change along the vascular tree. The cells of the neurovascular unit together perform an array of vital functions, protecting the brain from circulating toxins and infection, while providing nutrients and clearing away waste products. To do so, the brain's microvasculature dilates to direct energy substrates to active neurons, regulates access to circulating immune cells, and promotes angiogenesis in response to decreased blood supply, as well as pulsating to help clear waste products and maintain the oxygen supply. Different parts of the cerebrovascular tree contribute differently to various aspects of these functions, and previously, it has been assumed that there are discrete types of vessel along the vascular network that mediate different functions. Another option, however, is that the multiple transitions in function that occur across the vascular network do so at many locations, such that vascular function changes gradually, rather than in sharp steps between clearly distinct vessel types. Here, by reference to new data as well as by reviewing historical and recent literature, we argue that this latter scenario is likely the case and that vascular function gradually changes across the network without clear transition points between arteriole, precapillary arteriole and capillary. This is because classically localized functions are in fact performed by wide swathes of the vasculature, and different functional markers start and stop being expressed at different points along the vascular tree. Furthermore, vascular branch points show alterations in their mural cell morphology that suggest functional specializations irrespective of their position within the network. Together this work emphasizes the need for studies to consider where transitions of different functions occur, and the importance of defining these locations, in order to better understand the vascular network and how to target it to treat disease.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.779823 | DOI Listing |
Adv Sci (Weinh)
January 2025
Tissue Engineering and Organ Manufacturing (TEOM) Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan University TaiKang Medical School (School of Basic Medical Sciences), Wuhan, 430071, China.
Liver organoids have been increasingly adopted as a critical in vitro model to study liver development and diseases. However, the pre-vascularization of liver organoids without affecting liver parenchymal specification remains a long-lasting challenge, which is essential for their application in regenerative medicine. Here, the large-scale formation of pre-vascularized human hepatobiliary organoids (vhHBOs) is presented without affecting liver epithelial specification via a novel strategy, namely nonparenchymal cell grafting (NCG).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Foot and Ankle Research and Innovation Lab (FARIL), Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Tendon injuries present significant medical, social, and economic challenges globally. Despite advancements in tendon injury repair techniques, outcomes remain suboptimal due to inferior tissue quality and functionality. Tissue engineering offers a promising avenue for tendon regeneration, with biocompatible scaffolds playing a crucial role.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Case Rep
January 2025
Medical Department, Lyell McEwin Hospital, Elizabeth Vale, South Australia, Australia.
Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) are a group of connective tissue disorders associated with skin, ligament, blood vessel and organ abnormalities. Skin hyperextensibility, joint hypermobility and widened atrophic scars are characteristic of classical EDS. Vascular complications, though rare in classical EDS, can be life-threatening, and this necessitates one to look for vascular associations in non-vascular, such as classical, forms of EDS due to the heterogeneity of the syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetab Brain Dis
January 2025
Ruikang Hospital Affiliated to Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, 530000, China.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects the elderly population and is the leading cause of dementia. Meanwhile, the vascular hypothesis suggests that vascular damage occurs in the early stages of the disease, leading to neurodegeneration and hindered waste clearance, which in turn triggers a series of events including the accumulation of amyloid plaques and Tau protein tangles. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), have been found to be involved in the regulation of AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld J Surg Oncol
January 2025
Summit Medical Group, Bend, OR, USA.
Background: National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines recommend sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for patients with > 10% risk of positivity, consider SLNB with 5-10% risk, and foregoing with < 5% risk. The integrated 31-gene expression profile (i31-GEP) algorithm combines the 31-GEP with clinicopathologic variables, estimating SLN positivity risk.
Methods: The i31-GEP SLNB risk prediction accuracy was assessed in patients with T1-T2 tumors enrolled in the prospective, multicenter DECIDE study (n = 322).
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