Developing Leaks

Leaky plumbing spells disaster for your house. But leaky blood vessels in your brain can actually be a good thing. Fenestrated capillaries in your brain are small blood vessels that allow certain large molecules to pass through to support your brain’s immune system and maintain a balance of hormones and fluids. Researchers now investigate the molecular mechanisms behind the formation of these vessels using zebrafish. Vegf is a protein already known to promote blood vessel development. The team created mutants lacking different types — Vegfab, Vegfc and Vegfd — and then used fluorescent microscopy to image the fenestrated blood vessels (pictured, green). Lacking any one Vegf had little effect compared to normal zebrafish (left). However, lacking combinations of Vegfs caused clear defects specifically in fenestrated vessels (middle and right), while other vessels developed normally. Multiple Vegfs therefore coordinate their efforts to ensure proper perforation.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image adapted from work by Sweta Parab, Rachael E Quick and Ryota L Matsuoka
• Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH,USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, January 2021