Anatomical relationships of the pia mater to cerebral blood vessels in man

1986 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Hutchings ◽  
Roy O. Weller

✓ Using scanning and transmission electron microscopy and light microscopy, the authors studied the human pia mater and its relationship to the entry of blood vessels into the normal cerebral cortex. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the long-established concept that the subarachnoid space communicates directly with the perivascular spaces of the cerebral cortex. Brains obtained post mortem from subjects with recent subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and purulent leptomeningitis were studied by light microscopy to determine the permeability of the pia mater to red blood cells and inflammatory cells. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the normal pia mater is a flat sheet of cells that is reflected from the surface of the brain to form the outer coating of the meningeal vessels in the subarachnoid space. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed that the cells of the pia mater are joined by junctional complexes and form a continuous sheet that separates the subarachnoid space on one side from the subpial and perivascular spaces on the other. Thus, neither the pia mater nor the subarachnoid space extends into the brain beside blood vessels as they enter the cerebral cortex. The perivascular spaces were, in fact, found to be confluent with the subpial space and not with the subarachnoid space. In cases of recent SAH, red blood cells did not enter the perivascular spaces from the subarachnoid space; neither did India ink injected post mortem into the subarachnoid space pass into the perivascular spaces. The results of these crude tracer studies suggest that the pia mater is an effective barrier to the passage of particulate matter. Histological examination of brains of patients who had died with purulent leptomeningitis showed that inflammatory cells were present in the cortical perivascular spaces and in the contiguous subpial spaces. The presence of a large number of inflammatory cells in the subarachnoid space suggests that inflammatory cells readily penetrate the pia mater that separates the perivascular spaces from the subarachnoid space. The permeability of the pia mater to small molecular weight substances is briefly discussed.

Author(s):  
J. D. Hutchison

When the transmission electron microscope was commercially introduced a few years ago, it was heralded as one of the most significant aids to medical research of the century. It continues to occupy that niche; however, the scanning electron microscope is gaining rapidly in relative importance as it fills the gap between conventional optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.IBM Boulder is conducting three major programs in cooperation with the Colorado School of Medicine. These are the study of the mechanism of failure of the prosthetic heart valve, the study of the ultrastructure of lung tissue, and the definition of the function of the cilia of the ventricular ependyma of the brain.


Author(s):  
A.J. Tousimis ◽  
T.R. Padden

The size, shape and surface morphology of human erythrocytes (RBC) were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), of the fixed material directly and by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of surface replicas to compare the relative merits of these two observational procedures for this type specimen.A sample of human blood was fixed in glutaraldehyde and washed in distilled water by centrifugation. The washed RBC's were spread on freshly cleaved mica and on aluminum coated microscope slides and then air dried at room temperature. The SEM specimens were rotary coated with 150Å of 60:40- gold:palladium alloy in a vacuum evaporator using a new combination spinning and tilting device. The TEM specimens were preshadowed with platinum and then rotary coated with carbon in the same device. After stripping the RBC-Pt-C composite film, the RBC's were dissolved in 2.5N HNO3 followed by 0.2N NaOH leaving the preshadowed surface replicas showing positive topography.


2021 ◽  
pp. 86-89

Perivascular spaces; also known as the Virchow-Robin Spaces, they are pleurally lined, interstitial fluid-filled areas that surround certain blood vessels in various organs, especially the perforating arteries in the brain, with an immunological function. Dilated perivascular spaces are divided into three types. The first of these is on the lenticulostriate artery, the second is in the cortex following the path of the medullary artery, and the third is in the midbrain. Perivascular spaces can be detected as areas of dilatation on MR images. Although a limited number of perivascular spaces can be seen in a normal brain, the increase in the number of these spaces has been associated with the incidence of various neurodegenerative diseases. Different theories have been suggested about the tendency of the perivascular spaces to expand. Current theories include mechanical trauma due to cerebrospinal fluid pulsing, elongation of penetrating blood vessels, unusual vascular permeability, and increased fluid exudation. In addition, the brain tissue atrophy that occurs with aging; It is thought to contribute to the widening of perivascular spaces by causing shrinkage of arteries, altered arterial wall permeability, obstruction of lymphatic drainage pathways and vascular demyelination. It is assumed that the clinical significance of the dilation tendencies of the perivascular spaces is based on shape change rather than size. These spaces have been mostly observed in brain regions such as corpus callosum, cingulate gyrus, dentate nucleus, substantia nigra and various arterial basins including lenticulostriate artery and mesencephalothalamic artery. In conclusion, when sections are taken on MR imaging, it is possible that perivascular spaces may be confused with microvascular diseases and some neurodegenerative changes. In addition, perivascular spaces can be seen without pathological significance. Therefore, it would be appropriate to investigate the etiological relationship by evaluating the radiological findings and clinical picture together.


1999 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Fabron Junior ◽  
José Orlando Bordin ◽  
Hélio Moraes-Souza ◽  
Edna FreyMüller ◽  
Eliana Lages-Silva

White cell (WBC)-reduction filters have been shown to be effective in removing infectious agents from infected blood products. In this study, the mechanisms of Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) retention by WBC-reduction filters were assessed. Human packed red blood cell (PRBC) and platelet concentrate (PC) samples were contaminated with T. cruzi organisms (Y strain; 3.4 x 10(6)/ml), and then filtered using WBC-reduction experimental filters that provided about 3 log10 WBC removal. Transmission electron microscopy sections showed that T. cruzi parasites were removed from contaminated PRBC and PC samples primarily by mechanical mechanism without interacting with filter fibbers or blood cells. In addition, we found that T. cruzi parasites were also removed by a direct fibber adhesion. These data indicate that T. cruzi parasites are removed from infected blood not only by mechanical mechanism but also by biological mechanism probably mediated by parasite surface proteins.


1983 ◽  
Vol 158 (4) ◽  
pp. 1145-1159 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Kaplan ◽  
W C Van Voorhis ◽  
E N Sarno ◽  
N Nogueira ◽  
Z A Cohn

The dermal lesions of 18 patients with leprosy have been examined by transmission electron microscopy. The patients exhibited a spectrum of disease from polar lepromatous to polar tuberculoid with intermediate stages in various states of therapy and relapse. The nature and quantities of inflammatory cells and bacteria have been determined by electron microscopy to supplement previous light and fluorescence microscopy studies. Lepromatous leprosy was characterized by many parasitized foam cells containing large, multibacillary vacuoles with intact, osmiophilic Mycobacterium leprae: Bacteria were embedded in an electron-lucent matrix. No extracellular bacteria were evident. Only small numbers of scattered lymphocytes were found. As one approached the borderline state, smaller numbers of bacilli were present as singlets and doublets in small vacuoles of macrophages. The more reactive forms showed increasing bacillary fragmentation, larger numbers of lymphoid cells, and an occasional epithelioid cell. At the tuberculoid end of the spectrum, clear evidence of an exuberant lymphocyte response was evident. Large numbers of T cells with extremely long and complex filipodia were closely associated with epithelioid and multinucleated giant cells. Many of the mononuclear phagocytes appeared nonviable, and areas of necrosis were evident. Bacillary remnants were scarce and the cytoplasm of the epithelioid cells contained occasional dense bodies and many stacks of endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. These results suggest that Leu 3a/OKT4 helper cells may be capable of driving the effector function of mononuclear phagocytes. This would lead to a significant microbicidal effect on M. leprae, perhaps through the production of toxic oxygen intermediates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parisa Saboori ◽  
Ali Sadegh

The interface between the brain and the skull consists of three fibrous tissue layers, dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater, known as the meninges, and strands of collagen tissues connecting the arachnoid to the pia mater, known as trabeculae. The space between the arachnoid and the pia mater is filled with cerebrospinal fluid which stabilizes the shape and position of the brain during head movements or impacts. The histology and architecture of the subarachnoid space trabeculae in the brain are not well established in the literature. The only recognized fact about the trabeculae is that they are made of collagen fibers surrounded by fibroblast cells and they have pillar- and veil-like structures. In this work the histology and the architecture of the brain trabeculae were studied, via a series of in vivo and in vitro experiments using cadaveric and animal tissue. In the cadaveric study fluorescence and bright field microscopy were employed while scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used for the animal studies. The results of this study reveal that the trabeculae are collagen based type I, and their architecture is in the form of tree-shaped rods, pillars, and plates and, in some regions, they have a complex network morphology.


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