Metabolic Patterns in Cerebral Capillaries

Brain capillaries and parenchyma are morphologically and metabolically separate and distinct compartments; the function of endothelial cells in transporting substances from blood to brain requires some specialized properties. The simplicity in isolating cerebral capillaries permits the investigation on their biochemical properties. Such an approach has revealed that the enzymatic organization of brain capillaries differs from that of the parenchyma (4–7, 11, 15). The brain capillaries which we have been studying are most probably a part of the blood-brain barrier (BBB); hence it is tentatively proposed that the specific biochemical organization of the brain microvasculature regulates the transport of substrates across the blood to the brain.