Microembolus clearance through angiophagy is an auxiliary mechanism preserving tissue perfusion in the rat brain.

ABSTRACT: Considering its intolerance to ischemia, it is of critical importance for the brain to efficiently process microvascular occlusions and maintain tissue perfusion. In addition to collateral microvascular flow and enzymatic degradation of emboli, the endothelium has the potential to engulf microparticles and thereby recanalize the vessel, through a process called angiophagy. Here, we set out to study the dynamics of angiophagy in relation to cytoskeletal remodeling in vitro and reperfusion in vivo. We show that polystyrene microspheres and fibrin clots are actively taken up by (brain) endothelial cells in vitro, and chart the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton during this process using live cell imaging. Whereas microspheres were taken up through the formation of a cup structure by the apica

SUBMITTER: van der Wijk AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7671188 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature