The aging of large blood vessels in the brain, and their resulting dysfunctions, are quite different from those of the small vessels, the microvasculature. Large vessels are predominantly affected by atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty plaques that weaken and narrow blood vessels, leading to the catastrophic structural failure of a stroke. Small vessels, on the other hand, appear to be affected by a collection of mechanisms that cause functional deterioration, such as pathological amyloid deposition, with atherosclerosis as only one of that list of harmful processes. This is the point made in the open access paper here, in any case, in which the authors emphasize that cerebral smal…
Cerebral Small Vessel Disease as a General Microvascular Issue Rather than a Specifically Atherosclerotic Issue
The aging of large blood vessels in the brain, and their resulting dysfunctions, are quite different from those of the small vessels, the microvasculature. Large vessels are predominantly affected by atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty plaques that weaken and narrow blood vessels, leading to the catastrophic structural failure of a stroke. Small vessels, on the other hand, appear to be affected by a collection of mechanisms that cause functional deterioration, such as pathological amyloid deposition, with atherosclerosis as only one of that list of harmful processes. This is the point made in the open access paper here, in any case, in which the authors emphasize that cerebral smal…