Scanning and transmission electron microscopic studies of microvascular pathology in the osmotically impaired blood-brain barrier

Summary The present investigation focused on the structural events occurring in endothelial cells lining the lumina of brain microvessels in rats subjected to a single intracarotid injection of hypertonic 1.8m l (+) arabinose solution with or without intravenous injection of horseradish peroxidase. Blood vessels from cerebral cortex and thalamus were evaluated by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. After short-term exposure (10–12 min) there was widespread flooding of peroxidase into the brain neuropil of the ipsilateral hemisphere. Peroxidase tracer was frequently observed within vesiculo-tubular profiles, and occasionally within widened interendothelial junctional clefts. Partially fragmented, necrotic endothelial cells appeared to be in the process of desquamation. Individual endothelial cells appeared to be shrunken with widened interendothelial spaces. Some healthy endothelial cells appeared to be involved in repair processes, manifested by the extension of thin cellular processes towards the area of vessel injury. Other pathological alterations included a conspicuous increase in the number of endothelial cell microvilli, large crater-like invaginations of the endothelial plasma membranes and muscular blood vessels in the process of spasm. We also observed a platelet reaction with or without endothelial cell necrosis and attached microthrombi in some arterial segments.