Impairment and restoration of the endothelial blood-brain barrier in the rat cerebral infarction model assessed by expression of endothelial barrier antigen immunoreactivity
K. Nishigaya et al., Impairment and restoration of the endothelial blood-brain barrier in the rat cerebral infarction model assessed by expression of endothelial barrier antigen immunoreactivity, ACT NEUROP, 99(3), 2000, pp. 231-237
Endothelial barrier antigen (EBA) can be used to detect the blood-brain bar
rier in the central nervous system of rats. This study investigated the tem
poral profile of antigen expression in cerebral vessels after infarction an
d assessed the relationship between re-establishment of this antigen in new
ly formed vessels and astrocytes around these vessels. Rats were subjected
to cerebral ischemia for 2 h by the intraluminal thread method, then killed
after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 28 days. Perfusion-fixed paraffin-embedded brains we
re immunostained for detection of EBA and glial fibrillary acidic protein (
GFAP) by the streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method. EBA immunostain
ing in vessels in the infarcted lesion was reduced at day 1 and had almost
disappeared by day 3. Newly formed vessels were found from day 3, but were
not stained at day 7. However, these new vessels were weakly stained at day
14 and definitely stained at day 28. GFAP immunostaining was completely ne
gative around these proliferating vessels. The temporal profile of disappea
rance and re-expression of EBA in cerebral infarcted lesion may be associat
ed with aggravation and improvement of brain edema, although barrier permea
bility was not explored in this study. The expression of this antigen has n
o relationship to the formation of astrocyte/endothelial contacts.