Longden Thomas A, Isaacs Dominic
Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Laboratory of Neurovascular Interactions, Center for Biomedical Engineering and Technology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2025 May;136(5):e70030. doi: 10.1111/bcpt.70030.
Dynamic control of membrane potential lies at the nexus of a wide spectrum of biological processes, ranging from the control of individual cell secretions to the orchestration of complex thought and behaviour. Electrical signals in all vascular cell types (smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and pericytes) contribute to the control of haemodynamics and energy delivery across spatiotemporal scales and throughout all tissues. Here, our goal is to review and synthesize key studies of electrical signalling within the brain vasculature and integrate these with recent data illustrating an important electrical signalling role for pericytes, in doing so attempting to work towards a holistic description of blood flow control in the brain by vascular electrical signalling. We use this as a framework for generating further questions that we believe are important to pursue. Drawing parallels with electrical signal integration in the nervous system may facilitate deeper insights into how signalling is organized within the vasculature and how it controls blood flow at the network level.
膜电位的动态控制处于广泛生物过程的核心，从单个细胞分泌的控制到复杂思维和行为的协调。所有血管细胞类型（平滑肌细胞、内皮细胞和周细胞）中的电信号有助于在时空尺度上以及在所有组织中控制血液动力学和能量传递。在这里，我们的目标是回顾和综合脑脉管系统内电信号传导的关键研究，并将这些研究与最近的数据相结合，这些数据说明了周细胞在电信号传导中的重要作用，在此过程中，我们试图通过血管电信号传导对大脑中的血流控制进行全面描述。我们以此为框架提出进一步的问题，我们认为这些问题值得深入研究。将其与神经系统中的电信号整合进行类比，可能有助于更深入地了解脉管系统内信号是如何组织的，以及它如何在网络层面控制血流。
