Abstract
Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are a disorder of cerebral microvessels that are characterized as small (<10 mm), hypointense, round or ovoid lesions seen on T2*-weighted gradient echo MRI. There is a high prevalence of CMBs in community-dwelling healthy older people. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the significance of CMBs in stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, gait disturbances and late-life depression. Blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction is considered to be the event that initializes CMBs development. However, the pathogenesis of CMBs has not yet been clearly elucidated. In this review, we introduce the pathogenesis of CMBs, hypertensive vasculopathy and cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and review recent research that has advanced our understanding of the mechanisms underlying BBB dysfunction and CMBs presence. CMBs-associated risk factors can exacerbate BBB breakdown through the vulnerability of BBB anatomical and functional changes. Finally, we discuss potential pharmacological approaches to target the BBB as therapy for CMBs.
Highlights
Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are designated as small (
The lobar microbleeds are related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), while deep or mixed CMBs are attributable to hypertensive vasculopathy [2, 5]
Histopathological studies have shown that CMBs contain hemosiderin deposits or hemosiderinladen macrophagocytes adjacent to abnormal small cerebral vessels presenting with fibrolipohyalinosis or cerebral amyloid angiopathy
Summary
Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are designated as small (
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