Graphical abstract showing gradient distribution of primary cilia in the mural cells. Primary cilium frequency and lengths are reversely proportional to smooth-muscle actin expression.

🧩 Summary:
✅ #Pericytes have #PrimaryCilia with an arterio-venular gradient🏳️‍🌈
✅ 🚶‍♀️🧠 ECs have primary #cilia, 🐁🧠 ECs don’t
✅ EC polarity aligns opposite to #BloodFlow 🧭
❔Lots of open questions about cilia’s role in #NeurovascularCoupling!
Read the full preprint: 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧪🧵8/8

🗺️We mapped #MuralCells — including #pericytes and #smoothmuscle — as vectors➡️ to visualize where #PrimaryCilia🌟 occur across the 🐁🧠 #microvasculature.
The result? A striking pattern: #cilia are abundant on #capillaries and #venules, but almost absent on #arterioles.
🧪🧵3/8

(d) Percent distribution of primary cilia in MCs after microvascular stratification into pial and parenchymal vessels, including 1-3rd order capillaries from the MICrONS (mouse visual cortex), CA1 (mouse hippocampus), and h01 (human cortex) datasets. Note that neither CA1 nor h01 contain any pial vessels. (e) Lengths of MC primary cilia in pial and parenchymal vessels, including 1-3rd order capillaries MCs from MICrONS.

📊 #Pericytes are frequently ciliated in both 🐁 and 🚶‍♀️🧠—but mostly near #venules and venous-end #capillaries.
Venular mural cells: up to 90% ciliated in 🐁 datasets!
Arteriolar mural cells: almost none.
Why this gradient? Flow, pressure, permeability?
🧪🧵2/8

New on bioRxiv! 🚨
“Pericyte and Endothelial Primary Cilia and Centrioles have Disparate Organization Across the Brain Microvasculature”
This project studying #microvascular cells took an unexpected turn when we discovered that #pericytes have primary #cilia!
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧪 🧵1/8

The regulation of placental pericyte function through transforming growth factor β-1 signalling - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - The regulation of placental pericyte function through transforming growth factor β-1 signalling

Checkout our new work demonstrating how TGFb1 impacts placental pericyte secretion of proangiogenic and proinflammatory factors and inhibits pericyte phagocytosis. Out today in Scientific Reports. @drcnatale.bsky.social
#pericytes #placenta
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Angiocrine & #Pericrine signaling: how #EndothelialCells & #Pericytes drive cancer progression and therapy resistance

Hodivala-Dilke lab #PhysiolRev 2025
journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Anyone can share a reading link?🙏
Behind the paywall💰😩

Non-invasive characterization of pericyte dysfunction in mouse brain using functional ultrasound localization microscopy - Nature Biomedical Engineering An optimized pipeline for functional ultrasound localization microscopy is safely and non-invasively applied to detect and characterize early microvascular alterations with high spatial and temporal r...

Really cool stuff on #pericytes @natureportfolio.nature.com !

Pericyte pannexin1 controls cerebral capillary diameter and supports memory function - Nature Communications Brain contractile pericytes control capillary blood flow to match neuronal demands. Here, the authors show that pericytes express ATP-releasing pannexin1 channels and establish their role in the regul...

#Pericytes #cerebrovascular

Brain precapillary sphincters modulate myogenic tone in adult and aged mice - GeroScience Brain precapillary sphincters, which are surrounded by contractile pericytes and are located at the junction of penetrating arterioles and first-order capillaries, can increase their diameter by ~ 30%...

#pericytes #cerebrovascular #aging

We are happy to share our latest paper about nimodipine effects on ensheathing and thin strand pericytes, now online at Neurotherapeutics:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#Neurotherapeutics
#Pericytes

🎉 Excited to share our new paper in Science Signaling on #brain #pericytes constriction and TRPC3 channel—now published, featured on the cover, and highlighted in a Focus by
@vesselman.bsky.social

🧠🧪 Check it out: www.science.org/toc/signalin...
@cuanschutz.bsky.social

Increased luminal pressure in brain capillaries drives TRPC3-dependent depolarization and constriction of transitional pericytes Blood flow into the cerebral microvasculature is regulated by TRPC3-dependent constriction of transitional pericytes.

@dablab.bsky.social team discovered that an #ionchannel - TRPC3 - drives the myogenic response in transitional #pericytes but not smooth muscle cells, making it a target to rescue abnormal #cerebrovascular flow in #neurodegeneration.

#neuroskyence #scicomm
#MedSky 🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Imaging of adult DRG neurons cultured on a human pericyte (supplied by Neuromics) monolayer with or without PDGF-BB stimulation.

Is the presence of pericytes at the lesion site of a spinal cord injury a good or bad thing? Scientists from Ohio State University are answering that question in recently published research.

Learn more in our new blog post: www.neuromics.com/exciting-spi...

#neuroscience #pericytes

Pericyte Electrical Signalling and Brain Haemodynamics Dynamic control of membrane potential lies at the nexus of a wide spectrum of biological processes, ranging from the control of individual cell secretions to the orchestration of complex thought and ...

Interesting review by @talongden.bsky.social #cerebrovascular #pericytes

Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction in Normal Aging and Neurodegeneration: Mechanisms, Impact, and Treatments | Stroke Cerebral endothelial cells and their linking tight junctions form a unique, dynamic and multi-functional interface, the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The endothelium is regulated by perivascular cells an...

#Medsky🧪 #IDSky #Neurosky #immunoSky #publichealth Depletion of #pericytes resulting in BBB dysfunction can impact normal 🧠 function, damage neurons & impair cognitive & neurological functions @ahajournals.bsky.social
www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/...

www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/26...

New #lung development research shows that #microvasculature promotes alveolar type 2 cell differentiation in lung #organoids via secreted SPARCL1 #differentiation #pericytes ow.ly/8eZb50VlM9U

@isscr.org @cellpress.bsky.social
@gairdnerawards.bsky.social @sickkidsvs.bsky.social

Longitudinal Investigation of Brain and Spinal Cord Pericytes After Inducible PDGFRβ+ Cell Ablation in Adult Mice Pericytes are essential for central nervous system vascular function, yet studying their role in adult pathologies has been challenging due to the scarcity of well-characterized models that preserve ...

Longitudinal Investigation of Brain and Spinal Cord Pericytes After Inducible PDGFRβ+ Cell Ablation in Adult Mice. #pericytes #CNS

Immunostaining of a mouse brain with ATP13A5 and GFAP. Nuclei have been visualized by DAPI staining.

Immunostaining of a mouse brain with ATP13A5 (red) and GFAP (cyan). Nuclei have been visualized by DAPI staining (blue).

#bloodbrainbarrier
#FluorescenceFriday
#Pericytes

Brain pericytes and perivascular fibroblasts are stromal progenitors with dual functions in cerebrovascular regeneration after stroke - Nature Neuroscience Bernier, Hefendehl et al. describe a stromal progenitor cell population consisting of pericytes, venular smooth muscle cells and perivascular fibroblasts in the adult brain that modify their function ...

Great new work by Brian MacVicar's team, showing that pericytes and perivascular fibroblasts are distinct subpopulations of stromal progenitor cells in the adult brain that coordinate revascularization and scar formation after injury. #cerebrovascular #stroke #pericytes

This #microscopy image by Grad Student Anindita Neog shows a detailed view of the retina in a 5-day post-fertilization #zebrafish larva. The green highlights the developing hyaloid #vasculature, while the magenta marks the #pericytes, associated with the blood vessels.

#microscopymonday 🧪 🤝 🐟🎸

Screening and Identification of Brain Pericyte‐Selective Markers Using an innovative genetic tool coupled with FACS and RNAseq, we identified Pla1a and Cox4i2 as two genes selectively enriched in brain pericytes compared to vascular smooth muscle cells.

Pla1a and Cox4i2 genes could be new markers for brain pericytes, according to this new study #Pericytes #Markers #CellBiology

Unraveling the transcriptomic landscape of brain vascular cells in dementia: A systematic review INTRODUCTION Cerebrovascular dysfunction plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of dementia and related neurodegenerative disorders. Recent omics-driven research has revealed associations between...

🚨 Latest contribution where we delve into the dementia-related snRNAseq data & spotlight the signature changes in #endothelialcells and #pericytes!

Proud of the effort led by Dr. Michael Sewell @pichaelmichael.bsky.social and Nela Fialova.

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

An organoid consisting of blood vessels and mural cells stained with fluorescent antibodies

#FluorescenceFriday! Congrats to one of our very talented PhD students, Irene, who just stained her first stem-cell derived blood vessel organoid 🧪🧠🥳 #pericytes #neuroimmune #neuroskyence #PainResearch

Looking forward to next weeks BRAIN MICROCIRCULATION -
CTH workshop in Aarhus, Denmark. My talk is Monday in session 4 about: Oxygen Imaging of Hypoxic Pockets in Mouse Cortex. All about #braincapillaries #oxygen #pericytes #capillarystalling #microcirculation #neurovascularcoupling #imaging

Had a fantastic week at #ANS2024 with Australasian Neuroscience colleagues talking #microglia, #pericytes and #TasmanianDevils. Look forward to seeing you all again in #Hobart for #ANS2025!

Would love to be added!! Doing #BBB work w/ a focus on #pericytes and #astrocytes 🧠

#Neurovasculature changes from the #arterial to the #venular end. Here I have tried to draw the #cell morphologies realistically. #Endothelialcells go from spindle shaped to rhombic shaped and #muralcells from #smoothmuscle to #pericytes. #Astrocytes same shape. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Here we show how #microglia contact #pericytes and #endothelialcells in the #venule end of the #capillary bed. Note also how a #primarycilium of an #interneuron invaginates the microglia. But why? 🤔 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... @gazz4science.bsky.social

#neuroinflammation 🧵: The Journal of Neuroinflammation is discussing “what is and what isn’t neuroinflammation”? We would like to hear thoughts from any and all bksy researchers in or adjacent to #microglia, #macrophage, #vascular biology, #neurovasculature, #pericytes, #lymphatics and ???

My 1st #fluorescencefriday here so had to bring some old faves!

1) A vessel in a #brainslice w/ tight junction proteins (🟡), #pericytes (🩵), & #glia /lectin (🩷)

2) Some happy primary isolated and cultured #astrocytes (🟢) & #oligodendrocytes (🔴), DAPI (🔵)

#neuroskyence #BBB #neurovasculature