Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease marked by increased amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition, tau hyperphosphorylation, impaired energy metabolism, and chronic ischemia-type injury. Cerebral microvascular dysfunction likely contributes to AD pathology, but its precise pathogenic role has been poorly defined.
Objective: To examine microvascular reactivity to endothelium-dependent vasodilators and small conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channel activity in an intracerebral streptozotocin (STZ)-induced AD mouse model.
Methods: Control and STZ-AD mice underwent Morris Water Maze and Barnes testing, after which cerebral microvascular and brain microvascular endothelial cells (MBMECs) were dissected to assess microvascular reactivity, responses to SK channel activator NS309, and ion-channel current recordings using whole-cell patch clamp methodology. Control mouse cerebral microvascular and human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) were treated with soluble Aβ peptide to characterize microvascular reactivity and endothelial potassium currents.
Results: STZ-AD mice exhibited impaired performance vs control mice in behavioral testing. STZ-AD mice also exhibited diminished cerebral microvascular responsiveness and MBMECs potassium current augmentation in response to NS309 compared with control mice. Incubation of control mouse cerebral micro-vessels and HBMECs with soluble Aβ (1 µM) for 2 h attenuated relaxation responses to NS309 and diminished NS309-sensitive endothelial potassium currents.
Conclusions: STZ-AD mice exhibited impaired microvascular relaxation responses to endothelium-dependent vasodilators; SK/IK channel dysfunction may be involved in the mechanism of this impairment. Acute treatment with Aβ produced dysregulated cerebrovascular endothelial SK/IK channels. Further elucidation of the role of microvascular dysfunction in AD is needed to prevent the chronic ischemia-type injury that contributes to cognitive decline.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13872877241309120 | DOI Listing |
Adv Sci (Weinh)
January 2025
Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100070, China.
Ischemic stroke is the most common cerebrovascular disease and the leading cause of permanent disability worldwide. Recent studies have shown that stroke development and prognosis are closely related to abnormal tryptophan metabolism. Here, significant downregulation of 3-hydroxy-kynurenamine (3-HKA) in stroke patients and animal models is identified.
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January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Pathogenesis, Prevention and Treatment of High Incidence Diseases in Central Asia, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830000, China.
Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is an infrequent zoonosis caused by Echinococcus multilocularis with a high degree of disability and mortality. Metastatic cerebral alveolar echinococcosis (CAE) is very rare and the lesions could lead to severe perilesional brain edema (PLBE) and subsequent uncontrollable intracranial hypertension. In this study, we sought to determine the expression of edema-associated factors in CAE lesions and their associations with PLBE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStem Cell Rev Rep
January 2025
Stem Cell Institute, Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, O&N IV Herestraat 49, Leuven, 3000, Belgium.
Reliable models of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), wherein brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) play a key role in maintenance of barrier function, are essential tools for developing therapeutics and disease modeling. Recent studies explored generating BMEC-like cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) by mimicking brain-microenvironment signals or genetic reprogramming. However, due to the lack of comprehensive transcriptional studies, the exact cellular identity of most of these cells remains poorly defined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurol Int
January 2025
Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
Neuroinflammation is a blanket term that describes the body's complex inflammatory response in the central nervous system (CNS). It encompasses a phenotype shift to a proinflammatory state, the release of cytokines, the recruitment of peripheral immune cells, and a wide variety of other processes. Neuroinflammation has been implicated in nearly every major CNS disease ranging from Alzheimer's disease to brain cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Pharmacol
January 2025
Department of Geriatric Medicine, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
Endothelial cell dysfunction plays a crucial role in the early development of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Arginase-1 (ARG1) is expressed in endothelial cells, and its deficiency may exacerbate cerebrovascular damage by increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, thereby inducing endothelial cell apoptosis. Berbamine (BBM) has shown potential in neuroprotection and cardiovascular disease prevention.
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