A novel occluding junction forms the blood-brain barrier in cephalopod molluscs
Bundgaard, M.; Abbott, N.J.; Lane, N.J. (1995). A novel occluding junction forms the blood-brain barrier in cephalopod molluscs, in: Abbott, N.J. et al. (Ed.) Cephalopod neurobiology: neuroscience studies in squid, octopus and cuttlefish. pp. 445-457
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| Auteurs | | Top |
- Bundgaard, M.
- Abbott, N.J.
- Lane, N.J.
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| Abstract |
Earlier studies using radioisotopic tracer techniques showed that the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis has a blood-brain barrier (BBB) as tight as that of mammals. This chapter reviews recent high resolution electron microscopic studies of the blood-brain interface in Sepia which demonstrate that the BBB is formed by a novel restricting junction, between vascular pericytes in arterial vessels, and between perivascular glial cells in capillaries and venous vessels. The filtering properties of the junction appear to be determined by the extracellular matrix within the intercellular cleft, and a model is proposed by which adsorbed plasma proteins cross-link the matrix and reduce its effective mesh size. Electron microscopic examination of electron-dense tracer distribution in octopus and squid brain confirms that a BBB to protein is also present in these groups. The similarity between parts of the Sepia junctional 'skeleton' and junctions in other animal groups suggests an evolutionary sequence in which a relatively wide 'ancestral' junctional structure could have developed into the range of modern occluding junctional types. |
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