Dhital, Kumud Kumar; (2000) Perivascular innervation of cerebral arteries and vasa nervorum: Changes in development and disease. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Using fluorescence histochemical, and chemical assays, this thesis aims to study the perivascular innervation of cerebral arteries and that of nerve-trunk vasculature in both cranial and peripheral nerves. The first part of the thesis concerns the innervation of blood vessels within nerve trunks (vasa nervorum). A novel whole-mount preparation for the visualization of these vessels is described. Perivascular nerves supplying the vasa nervorum of various nerves in different species have been shown to contain noradrenaline, 5- hydroxytryptamine, substance P, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, neuropeptide Y and calcitonin gene-related peptide. This is followed by a study of the changes in innervation seen in experimental and human diabetic nerves. Eight weeks following induction of diabetes, there was an increase in the density of NA-containing fibres innervating the vasa nervorum in the sciatic, vagus and paravertebral sympathetic nerve trunks. This was in marked contrast to a lack of NA-containing fibres within the optic nerve sheaths in the same animals. A lack of NA-containing perivascular nerves supplying vasa nervorum in a limited number of diabetic human sural nerve biopsies is also described. The second part of the thesis examines the innervation of the major cerebral arteries during development and hypertension. Both these studies were confined to rat models. Following an initial post-natal increase in the density of innervation, it is shown that in the aging rat there is a decrease in the number of nerves containing vasoconstrictor neurotransmitter substances and an increase in the those containing vasodilator neurotransmitter substances. In the spontaneously hypertensive rat, there is an increased density of perivascular nerves containing NA and NPY at four weeks of age. The possibility that such an increase in innervation, before the onset of marked hypertension and medial hypertrophy, may be important in the development and maintenance of hypertension is discussed.

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