Summary
Blood vessels of the opossum brain are paired, artery and vein, and end in a closed loop. Both anatomically and physiologically they are true end-arteries. The two limbs are enclosed within a single basement membrane and are separated from each other by an intercapillary cell thought to be analogous to the usual capillary pericytes. The similarity of this vascular arrangement to that in the rabbit placenta and in the medulla of the kidney is discussed in relation to the counter-current multiplier system.
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This work was supported in part by the Beaumont-May Institute of Neurology and by a grant, B-425, from the United States Public Health Service.
Research Fellow of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
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Bubis, J.J., Luse, S.A. An electron microscopic study of the cerebral blood vessels of the opossum. Zeitschrift für Zellforschung 62, 16–25 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00339047
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00339047