Abstract
i) Background & Objectives: Pericytes play a pivotal role in contraction, mediating inflammation, and regulation of blood flow in the brain. In the present study, changes of pericytes in the neurovascular unit (NVU) were examined in relation to the effects of exogenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and a free radical scavenger, edaravone. ii) Methods: Immunohistochemistry and Western blot analyses showed that the overlap between PDGFRβ-positive pericytes and N-acetylglucosamine oligomers (NAGO)-positive endothelial cells increased significantly at 4 days after 90 min of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). iii) Results: The number of pericytes and the overlap with NAGO decreased with tPA, but recovered with edaravone 4 days after tMCAO with proliferation. Thus, tPA treatment damaged pericytes resulting in the detachment from astrocytes and a decrease in GDNF secretion. However, treatment with edaravone greatly improved tPA-induced damage to pericytes. iv) Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that exogenous tPA strongly damages pericytes and destroys the integrity of the NVU, but edaravone treatment can extremely ameliorate such damage after acute cerebral ischemia in rats.
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