Skip to main content
. 2014 Sep 19;6:251. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2014.00251

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Composition of the neurovascular unit. (A) Diagram of leptomeningeal artery. Viewed from the center: arterial lumen (red), endothelial cell (blue), cerebrovascular basement membrane (light green), vascular smooth muscle cells (orange) have a cerebrovascular basement membrane running between them and are penetrated by nerve fibres (yellow), pia mater (dark green), and astrocyte end foot (teal). (B) Micrograph of C57BL/6 mouse cortical artery. Lu, lumen; Edc, endothelial cell; Smc, vascular smooth muscle cell; CVBM, cerebrovascular basement membrane; Pm, pia mater; sub, subarachnoid space. TEM, 25,000×, scale bar, 1000 nm, image credit: Matthew M. Sharp. (C) Diagram of a cerebral capillary. Viewed from the center; capillary lumen (red), endothelial cell (blue), cerebrovascular basement membrane (light green), pericyte (purple), and astrocyte end foot (teal). (D) Micrograph of Wistar Kyoto rat cerebral capillary. Lu, lumen; Edc, endothelial cell; Pct, pericyte; CVBM, cerebrovascular basement membrane; Ast, astrocyte end foot. TEM, 50,000×; scale bar, 500 nm.