This review of age-related brain microvascular pathologies focuses on topics studied by this laboratory, including anatomy of the blood supply, tortuous vessels, venous collagenosis, capillary remnants, vascular density, and microembolic brain injury. Our studies feature thick sections, large blocks embedded in celloidin, and vascular staining by alkaline phosphatase (AP). This permits study of the vascular network in three dimensions, and the differentiation of afferent from efferent vessels. Current evidence suggests that there is decreased vascular density in aging, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and leukoaraiosis (LA), and cerebrovascular dysfunction precedes and accompanies cognitive dysfunction and neurodegeneration. A decline in cerebrovascular angiogenesis may inhibit recovery from hypoxia-induced capillary loss. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is inhibited by tortuous arterioles and deposition of excessive collagen in veins and venules. Misery perfusion due to capillary loss appears to occur before cell loss in LA, and CBF is also reduced in the normal-appearing white matter. Hypoperfusion occurs early in AD, inducing white matter lesions and correlating with dementia. In vascular dementia, cholinergic reductions are correlated with cognitive impairment, and cholinesterase inhibitors have some benefit. Most lipid microemboli from cardiac surgery pass through the brain in a few days, but some remain for weeks. They can cause what appears to be a type of vascular dementia years after surgery. Donepezil has shown some benefit. Emboli, such as clots, cholesterol crystals, and microspheres can be extruded through the walls of cerebral vessels, but there is no evidence yet that lipid emboli undergo such extravasation.

Periventricular venous collagenosis, a commonly observed and previously ignored degenerative disease of elderly humans, is strongly associated with leukoaraiosis. Stenosis or occlusion of deep cerebral veins may promote development of leukoaraiosis.

We investigated capillary density in 12 subjects with leukoaraiosis (LA), in 9 age-matched normal subjects, in 7 cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 4 after whole-brain irradiation for brain tumors. In the LA study (which as been published), autopsy brains were evaluated by MRI. The presence of LA was indicated by confluent or patchy areas of hyperintensity in the deep white matter. We employed a stereology method using computerized image processing and analysis to determine microvascular density. Afferent vessels (arterioles and capillaries, but not veins or venules) were stained for alkaline phosphatase in 100 μm thick celloidin sections. Microvascular density in LA lesions in the deep white matter (2.56%) was significantly lower than in the corresponding deep white matter of normal subjects (3.20%, p = 0.0180). LA subjects demonstrated decreased vascular density at early ages (55 -65 years) when compared to normal subjects. Our findings indicate that LA affects the brain globally, with capillary loss, although the parenchymal damage is found primarily in the deep white matter. In ongoing studies of the deep white matter in AD brains, we found a pattern of decreased vascular density compared to normal, as well as an age-related decline. In the four irradiated brains, we found very low vessel densities, similar to those found in LA, without an additional age-related decline.

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