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Maarja Mäe Andaloussi kõneleb 21. aprillil kell 10:00 teemal "Pericyte regulated functions of the blood-brain barrier".

Seminar toimub inglise keeles.

Teemast

The capillary vasculature of the central nervous system (CNS) forms a blood-brain barrier (BBB) that is impermeable to most blood-borne molecules and controls the transport of necessary molecules into the CNS. The BBB regulates the maintenance of the brain extracellular milieu needed for proper neuronal functioning in the CNS. The structural basis of the BBB is a layer of endothelial cells that are firmly joined together by junctional proteins. Endothelial cell tight and adherens junctions restrict the passage of ions and biomolecules from the blood to the brain parenchyma via paracellular pathways and furthermore, brain endothelial cells are characterized by a low rate of transcytosis, expression of influx and efflux transporters that regulate the transport of nutrients and metabolites in and out of the brain.

The first BBB characteristics are induced by neural tissue during early brain development but multiple cell types have been implicated in BBB maturation and regulation, including neurons, astrocytes, pericytes and microglia. The term neurovascular unit (NVU) is used to describe the tight cellular interactions and signaling between the above-mentioned cells and the endothelium.

Pericytes are strategically positioned in the NVU interfacing both the endothelial cells and the astrocytes and could coordinate cell-cell signaling at the NVU. CNS blood vessels have the highest known pericyte density and, as a result, brain pericytes may be special since they differ from pericytes found elsewhere in the body by their marker expression. In our study, we use pericyte-deficient transgenic and normal mice, RNAseq and quantitative proteomics approach to decipher the functions of pericytes at the BBB/NVU.