Nature Communications (Jan 2020)

Precapillary sphincters maintain perfusion in the cerebral cortex

  • Søren Grubb,
  • Changsi Cai,
  • Bjørn O. Hald,
  • Lila Khennouf,
  • Reena Prity Murmu,
  • Aske G. K. Jensen,
  • Jonas Fordsmann,
  • Stefan Zambach,
  • Martin Lauritzen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14330-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Precapillary sphincters are mural cells encircling an indentation of blood vessels where capillaries branch off from penetrating arterioles (PAs), but their existence and role in the brain is not fully understood. Here authors describe these structures at PAs in the cortex and show that they constrict during cortical spreading depolarization in mice.