Mild hypoxia triggers transient blood-brain barrier disruption: a fundamental protective role for microglia.

ABSTRACT: We recently demonstrated that when mice are exposed to chronic mild hypoxia (CMH, 8% O₂), blood vessels in the spinal cord show transient vascular leak that is associated with clustering and activation of microglia around disrupted vessels. Importantly, microglial depletion profoundly increased hypoxia-induced vascular leak, implying that microglia play a critical role maintaining vascular integrity in the hypoxic spinal cord. The goal of the current study was to examine if microglia play a similar vasculo-protective function in the brain. Employing extravascular fibrinogen leak as an index of blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, we found that CMH provoked transient vascular leak in cerebral blood vessels that was associated with activation and aggregation of Mac-1-positive mic

SUBMITTER: Halder SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7592567 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature