Minireview: regulation by second messengers of permeability in the cerebral microvessels

The view that the cerebral endothelial cells represent the cellular analogue of the blood-brain barrier has been generally accepted. The regulation of transport processes operating in the cerebral endothelial cells is of great current interest. Different elements of the intracellular signaling messenger systems have been detected in the course of our studies in the cerebral endothelial cells. Our knowledge of these regulatory mechanisms is briefly reviewed here with special emphasis on the importance of second messenger molecules and phosphorylation of certain proteins of microvascular origin.