Differential pattern of expression for endothelial cell markers in the microvessels of different brain regions.

Abstract

BackgroundThe role of microvascular endothelial cells in the brain is of importance in both healthy and diseased conditions. Various studies have reported heterogenicity in the phenotypical, morphological and molecular characteristics of endothelial cells in the different organs of the body. There is still not much known about the heterogenicity of the endothelial cells of the human brain microcirculation. This study was aimed at characterizing qualitatively the pattern of expression for endothelial cell markers for the microvessels within different regions of the brain.MethodsParaffin sections from different anatomical regions (precentral and postcentral gyrus, hippocampus, rhinal and visual cortex) of human formalin fixed brains (n=3) were stained immunohistochemically for endothelial cell markers, including CD31, claudin 5, von Willebrand Factor, E‐ selectin and P‐selectin.ResultsThe expression patterns of the markers was heterogenous in the different microvessels within the regions of the brain studied. The capillaries had the most positive expression among the different biomarkers especially for VWF and CD31 while the arterioles were most positive for the E‐Selectin marker. The density of of the stained microvessels were more in the white matter compared to the gray matter with the visual, rhinal and hippocampal regions showing high densities of the microvessels.ConclusionThe expression pattern of the different endothelial markers is heterogenous for the microvasculature within the different anatomical regions of the brain. This results indicate that the heterogenicity in microvascular endothelial cells contribute to functional differences in the different brain regions.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.