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Roles for pericytes at the neurovascular unit
Author(s) -
Daneman Richard
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.320.2
Subject(s) - angiogenesis , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , wnt signaling pathway , blood–brain barrier , neural stem cell , endothelial stem cell , transcriptome , central nervous system , tight junction , neuroscience , stem cell , signal transduction , gene expression , cancer research , gene , in vitro , genetics
The blood vessels of the central nervous system (CNS) form a barrier that is crucial for proper brain function and to protect the CNS from injury and disease. Determining the mechanisms regulating BBB function may prove vital to develop therapeutics to restore the BBB to prevent CNS damage during neurological disease. We have used microarray analysis to compare the gene expression of endothelial cells purified from the CNS with endothelial cells purified from non‐neural tissue, and thus have generated a comprehensive resource of transcripts that are enriched in the BBB forming endothelial cells of the CNS. Through this comparison we have identified novel tight junction proteins, transporters, metabolic enzymes, signaling components, and unknown transcripts whose expression is enriched in CNS endothelial cells. This analysis has led to the identification that neural stem cell‐derived Wnt/beta‐catenin signaling is required for CNS angiogenesis, but not angiogenesis in non‐neural tissue, and also induces BBB‐specific gene expression. Here we further analyze this transcriptome to identify novel regulators of BBB formation and function.