Ultrastructural studies on blood-brain barrier dysfunction after cerebral air embolism in the rat

Male albino rats were anaesthetized with diazepam, injected with horseradish peroxidase and Evans blue-labeled albumin and given an embolus of 0.01 ml air in the right common carotid artery after ligation of the external carotid branch. The pial arteries of the right cerebral hemisphere were stained blue, particularly the middle cerebral artery and its main arterial branchlets. Ultrastructurally, some endothelial cells in the right middle cerebral artery, small arteries and arterioles showed a diffuse distribution of horseradish peroxidase in their cytoplasm, although these vessels only occasionally showed peroxidase in their basement membranes. Other endothelial cells in these arterial branchlets showed few if any signs of a diffuse distribution of peroxidase but displayed several pinocytotic vesicles and occasionally trans-endothelial channels filled with peroxidase, sometimes with a slight leakage of peroxidase into adjacent basement membranes and neuropil. Scattered pinocytotic vesicles were observed in capillaries and venules, but there was usually no extravasation of peroxidase around these vessels.