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Fig. 5 | Fluids and Barriers of the CNS

Fig. 5

From: Elimination of substances from the brain parenchyma: efflux via perivascular pathways and via the blood–brain barrier

Fig. 5

Diagram indicating putative perivascular routes for substances to move into, out of and through the brain parenchyma. The lumens of arteries, arterioles, venules and veins are surrounded by a layer of endothelial cells with a basement membrane, then a layer of vessel wall including smooth muscle, and outside that there may be a further perivascular space with fluid and connective tissue bounded by basement membranes of the smooth muscle, pial and glial cells. Close to the surfaces of the brain these further spaces are often called Virchow-Robin spaces. Movements parallel to the large vessels may be intramural, through the extracellular space of the vessel wall, or extramural either in the outermost basement membranes or, in the opinion of some workers, in a fluid filled space. In this review both intramural and extramural pathways are called perivascular routes. Parallel to microvessels movement may be preferentially within the basement membrane separating the endothelial cells from the glial endfeet or it may be more diffuse through the interstitial spaces between the parenchymal cells

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