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. 2018 Jan 17;19(1):275. doi: 10.3390/ijms19010275

Figure 1.

Figure 1

VEGF signaling in blood brain barrier (BBB) breakdown after stroke: after ischemic stroke, it has been demonstrated that BBB is disrupted and cerebral barrier is dysfunctional. Using young mouse model of diabetes, it has been recently demonstrated that VEGFR2 inhibition through SU5416 (semaxanib) improves BBB integrity of the brain regions adjacent to the infarct core after experimental ischemic stroke. Surprisingly, tight junction was intact while capillary endothelial transcytosis was markedly increased in the presence of edematous cellular morphology at ultrastructural level. Transcytosis of Evans blue dye was detected in the capillary endothelium in which loss of BBB integrity was identified at three days after stroke. Note that VEGF elevation reaches the peak 6–48 h after stroke with intermediate level of VEGFR2 (left) while total VEGFR2 elevation was at the highest level at 14 days after stroke. Maintenance of elevated VEGFR2 expression continues for a longer period than that of VEGF after stroke [32].