Cerebrovascular pathogenesis in the telencephalon of the loop-tail mouse: a transmission electron-microscopic study

Cerebral capillaries in the telencephalon of normal (+/+; Lp/+) and abnormal (Lp/Lp) loop-tail mutant mice were studied chronologically by means of electron microscopy at stages ranging from 15 through 18 days of gestation. In the abnormal tissue, neural rosettes were common, and cellular material and red blood cells were often contained within the lumen of the rosettes. The endothelial cells of telencephalic blood vessels in the abnormal brains showed a persistence of cellular projections, subluminal vacuoles, and swollen mitochondria beyond the stage when these features ordinarily disappear in normal embryonic cerebral vessels. The endothelial cells in the abnormal brains also failed to become fully invested with pericytes, and red blood cells gradually infiltrated the neural tissue, particularly in subependymal regions, at 16-18 days of gestation.