Lack of Smad or Notch leads to a fatal game of brain pericyte hopscotch

Ethan A Winkler; Robert D Bell; Berislav V Zlokovic

doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2011.03.002

Lack of Smad or Notch leads to a fatal game of brain pericyte hopscotch

Dev Cell. 2011 Mar 15;20(3):279-80. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2011.03.002.

Authors

Ethan A Winkler¹, Robert D Bell, Berislav V Zlokovic

Affiliation

¹ Center for Neurodegenerative and Vascular Brain Disorders, Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642, USA.

PMID: 21397835
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2011.03.002

Abstract

Pericytes surround and stabilize the vast capillary network of the central nervous system. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Li et al. (2011) show that Smad4 and Notch signaling together regulate endothelial expression of an adhesion factor, N-cadherin, which couples pericytes to the endothelial cell wall, thereby preventing neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage.

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