Abstract
There is only one known portal system in the mammalian brain - that of the pituitary gland, first identified in 1933 by Popa and Fielding. Here we describe a second portal pathway in the mouse linking the capillary vessels of the brain’s clock suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to those of the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), a circumventricular organ. The localized blood vessels of portal pathways enable small amounts of important secretions to reach their specialized targets in high concentrations without dilution in the general circulatory system. These brain clock portal vessels point to an entirely new route and targets for secreted SCN signals, and potentially restructures our understanding of brain communication pathways.
Highlights
There is only one known portal system in the mammalian brain - that of the pituitary gland, first identified in 1933 by Popa and Fielding
We identify a vascular pathway in mouse for communication of diffusible signals in a hypothalamic portal system connecting the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and a nearby circumventricular organ (CVO), namely the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), using tissue clearing methodology combined with multilabel immunostaining and light-sheet microscopy
The vasculature of CVOs in vertebrates, including humans have long been of interest and have been investigated in substantial detail[17,18,19,20], while that of the SCN is less well established[17,21]
Summary
There is only one known portal system in the mammalian brain - that of the pituitary gland, first identified in 1933 by Popa and Fielding. The localized blood vessels of portal pathways enable small amounts of important secretions to reach their specialized targets in high concentrations without dilution in the general circulatory system. These brain clock portal vessels point to an entirely new route and targets for secreted SCN signals, and potentially restructures our understanding of brain communication pathways. We identify a vascular pathway in mouse for communication of diffusible signals in a hypothalamic portal system connecting the SCN and a nearby circumventricular organ (CVO), namely the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), using tissue clearing methodology combined with multilabel immunostaining and light-sheet microscopy. The findings pave the way for using currently available tools to explore additional portal systems between other CVOs and nearby brain regions
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