Cerebral microvascular architecture following experimental cold injury.

The sequential changes in microvascular architecture following local cold injury in rat brains were studied post mortem by scanning electron microscopy and the vascular casting method. The findings were compared with the results of immunohistochemical studies of injured endothelial cells using the bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) and anti-BUdR monoclonal antibody technique. Repair of the microvascular architecture had begun by the 3rd day after injury, with hematogenous cells and reactive astrocytes present in the edematous brain participating in the regenerative process. The normal microvascular architecture was reconstructed starting from the edge of the lesion nearest to the brain surface. On the other hand, in the most severely injured part of the brain surface, newly formed microvascular architecture appeared, resembling that of the developing fetal and newborn rat cortex. Seven days after injury, the entire microvascular architecture in the region of the lesion had been reconstructed.