Blood brain barrier breakdown as the starting point of cerebral small vessel disease? - New insights from a rat model.

Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD, cerebral microangiopathy) leads to dementia and stroke-like symptoms. Lacunes, white matter lesions (WML) and microbleeds are the main pathological correlates depicted in in-vivo imaging diagnostics. Early studies described segmental arterial wall disorganizations of small penetrating cerebral arteries as the most pronounced underlying histopathology of lacunes. Luminal narrowing caused by arteriolosclerosis was supposed to result in hypoperfusion with WML and infarcts.