Summary
The postnatal changes in arrangement of the vascular system of the pia-arachnoid of rats are described based on scanning electron microscopy of microcorrosion casts and transmission electron microscopy. At birth, the distal arteries and veins are embedded in a dense plexiform network of immature capillaries. Arteries and veins are interconnected by many small capillary anastomoses. The trunks are located above the pial plexus. The underlying plexiform vessels provide the matrix for the formation of additional collateral and precortical segments during further development. During the first postnatal week, the distal pial arteries and veins become visible as separate channels and emerge from the subjacent capillary plexus. The pattern of anastomosing arterial rings is now clearly visible. The pial arterial tree can be subdivided into conductive, collateral, and precortical distributive segments, according to Jokelainen et al. (1982). Subsequently, passive expansion of the vascular system takes place during the period of rapid brain growth. In young adults the majority of the formerly closed arterial rings are interrupted, possibly by regression of single collateral arterial segments (Fig. 6). The dense venous capillary plexus of the pia is maintained during the first eight days in spite of marked brain growth. The process of reduction of this capillary plexus starts at the arterial side and proceeds from proximal to distal segments of the veins during the second and third week. The capillary segments, which provide anastomosis between arterial and venous vessels, disappear at the same time as the regression of the dense venous capillary network. Two processes may biodify the architecture of the pial vasculature during development: brain growth and maturation on the one side and cytodifferentiation of vascular walls on other.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bär Th (1980) The vascular system of the cerebral cortex. Changes during ontogenesis, aging, and oxygen deprivation. Adv Anat Embryol Cell Biol 59:1–62
Cassel GH, Groden LR (1984) New thoughts on ocular neovascularization: A neurally controlled regenerative process? Ann Ophthalmol 16:138–141
Craigie EH (1925) Postnatal changes in vascularity in the cerebral cortex of the male albino rat. J Comp Neurol 39:301–324
Eins S, Wilhelms E (1976) Assessment of preparative volume changes in central nervous tissue using automatic image analysis. Microscope 24:29–37
Eulner S (1980) Beziehungen zwischen Wachstum and Vaskularisation der Großhirnrinde. Eine morphometrische Studie an der Albinoratte. Inauguraldissertation, Medizinische Fakultät Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen
Hirakow R, Hiruma T (1981) Scanning electron microscopic study on the development of primitive blood vessels in chick embryos at the early somite-stage. Anat Embryol 163:299–306
Isoda K, Fukuda H, Takamura N, Hamamoto Y (1981) Arteriovenous malformation of the brain. Histological study and micrometric measurement of abnormal vessels. Acta Pathol Jpn 31(5):883–893
Jokelainen P, Coyle P, Jokelainen G (1982) Structural organization of cerebral pial arterial circulation. Anat Rec 202(N3):A91–92
Lametschwandtner L, Miodoński A, Simonsberger P (1980) On the prevention of specimen charging in scanning electron microscopy of vascular corrosion casts by attaching conductive bridges. Mikroskopie (Wine) 36:270–273
Lanot R (1980) Formation of the early vascular network in chick embryo: microscopical aspects. Arch Biol (Bruxelles) 91:423–438
Miodoński AJ, Kuś J, Tyrankiewicz R (1981) Scanning electron microscopical bloodvessels casts analysis. In: Allan DJ, Motta PM, Didio JA (eds) Three dimensional microanatomy of cells and tissue surfaces. Elsevier/North-Holland, New York Amsterdam Oxford, pp 71–87
Padget DH (1956) The cranial venous system in man in reference to development, adult configuration and relation to the arteries. Am J Anat 98:307–355
Padget DH (1957) The development of the cranial venous system in man, from view point of comparative anatomy. Contrib Embryol Carneg Inst 36:79–140
Russell EJ, Berenstein A (1981) Meningeal collateralization to normal cerebral vessels associated with intracerebral arteriovenous malformations: functional angiographic considerations. Radiology 139:617–622
Streeter GL (1918) The developmental alterations in the vascular system of the brain of the human embryo. Contrib Embryol Carneg Inst 8:5–38
Strong LH (1964) The early embryonic pattern of internal vascularization of the mammalian cerebral cortex. J Comp Neurol 123:121–138
Trendel M (1983) Untersuchungen zuz postnatalen Kapillarisierung des somatosensorischen Cortex der weißen Ratte. Inaugural-Dissertation, Ludwig Maximilians-Universität, München
Vidyasagar C (1979) Peristent embryonic veins in the arteriovenous malformations of the dura. Acta Neurochir 48:199–216
Wolff JR, Goerz Ch, Bär Th, Güldner F-H (1975) Common morphogenetic aspects of various organotypic microvascular patterns. Microvasc Res 10:373–395
Yoshida Y, Ikuta F (1984) Three-dimensional architecture of cerebral microvessels with a scanning electron microscope: cerebrovascular casting method of fetal and adult rats. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 4:290–296
Zhukova TP, Purin VP (1978) Some structural peculiarities in the superficial vascular net of the human hemispheres during the second half of the intrauterine and early postnatal periods of development. Arkh Anat Gistol Embriol 75:51–59
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bär, T., Miodoński, A. & Budi Santoso, A.W. Postnatal development of the vascular pattern in the rat telencephalic pia-arachnoid. Anat Embryol 174, 215–223 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00824337
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00824337