Channelrhodopsin Excitation Contracts Brain Pericytes and Reduces Blood Flow in the Aging Mouse Brain in vivo.

ABSTRACT: Brains depend on blood flow for the delivery of oxygen and nutrients essential for proper neuronal and synaptic functioning. French physiologist Rouget was the first to describe pericytes in 1873 as regularly arranged longitudinal amoeboid cells on capillaries that have a muscular coat, implying that these are contractile cells that regulate blood flow. Although there have been >30 publications from different groups, including our group, demonstrating that pericytes are contractile cells that can regulate hemodynamic responses in the brain, the role of pericytes in controlling cerebral blood flow (CBF) has not been confirmed by all studies. Moreover, recent studies using different optogenetic models to express light-sensitive channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) cation channels in pericytes were not

SUBMITTER: Nelson AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7201096 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature