Over the past several decades, neuroscientists have become progressively aware of a group of cerebrovascular diseases in which the deep structures of the cerebrum are affected in preference to the cortex. Examples include subcortical dementia, subcortical infarction, intracerebral hemorrhage, and neonatal germinal matrix/intraventricular hemorrhage. To understand the pathogenesis of the disease...

In the search for a more reproducible focal ischemic stroke model in the rat, we systematically interrupted blood flow to the right middle cerebral artery territory by ligating the right middle cerebral artery, and the right and left common carotid arteries in succession. Using a laser-Doppler flowmeter, we found that the relative surface blood flow in cerebral cortex supplied by the right midd...

Intracellular pH (pHi) in the vascular wall modulates agonist-induced vasocontractile and vasorelaxant responses in mesenteric arteries, whereas effects on myogenic tone have been unsettled. We studied the role of Na(+),HCO3(-) cotransporter NBCn1 in mouse isolated middle cerebral arteries and the influence of pHi disturbances on myogenic tone. Na(+),HCO3(-) cotransport was abolished in arterie...

 Cerebrovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in the world, and about one-fourth of cerebrovascular deaths are due to ruptured cerebral aneurysms (CA). Hence it is important to find a way to reduce aneurysm formation and its subsequent morbidity and mortality. Proteolytic activity capable of lysing gelatin has been shown to be increased in aneurysm tissue and expressio...

Intracranial aneurysmal rupture is the common cause of spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). This haemorrhage is typically diffuse and located in extracerebral subarachnoid space in which main cerebral arterial branches are situated. The intimate and long-term contact of arterial wall and blood products in the closed space causes the cerebral vasospasm as a serious and frequent complicati...

M ost reported arterial dissections involve the carotid and vertebral arteries in the neck. Within the intracranial arteries, dissections most often involve the vertebral and basilar arteries. Intracranial carotid and middle cerebral artery dissections occur much more rarely and seem to develop in younger individuals compared with patients who develop posterior-circulation intracranial dissecti...

The presence of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS), and argininosuccinate lyase (ASL) and their coexistence with NADPH-diaphorase (NADPHd), a marker for NOS, in the porcine sphenopalatine ganglia (SPG), pial veins, and the anterior cerebral arteries was examined using immunohistochemical and histochemical staining techniques. NOS-immunoreactive (I), ASS-I, and ASL-I...

Hypertension is associated with aberrant structure and mechanical properties of resistance arteries. We determined the effects of resveratrol, a non-flavonoid polyphenol found in foods such as red grapes, and structurally-similar analogues (pterostilbene and gnetol) on systolic blood pressure (SBP) and resistance arteries from the spontaneously hypertensive heart failure (SHHF) rat. SBP was ele...

We recently reported that expression of recombinant endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) gene in adventitial fibroblasts restores NO formation in canine cerebral arteries without endothelium in response to bradykinin ex vivo and in vivo. The present study was designed to further characterize the stimuli that can activate recombinant eNOS enzyme expressed in the adventitia of cerebral a...