Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 118, Issue 34, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2021840118
Keywords
microcirculation; sensory cortex; continuum model; low-flow zones; blood flow regulation
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences [5R01GM126556]
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The arrangement and ratio of arterioles and venules in the cerebral cortex can impact the efficiency of energy delivery to neurons, with an optimal ratio balancing size and number of low-flow regions. Changes in vascular conductance can reshape these regions in complex ways, presenting geometric challenges for matching cortical perfusion with neuronal activity.
The energy demands of neurons are met by a constant supply of glucose and oxygen via the cerebral vasculature. The cerebral cortex is perfused by dense, parallel arterioles and venules, consistently in imbalanced ratios. Whether and how arteriole-venule arrangement and ratio affect the efficiency of energy delivery to the cortex has remained an unanswered question. Here, we show by mathematical modeling and analysis of the mapped mouse sensory cortex that the perfusive efficiency of the network is predicted to be limited by low-flow regions produced between pairs of arterioles or pairs of venules. Increasing either arteriole or venule density decreases the size of these low-flow regions, but increases their number, setting an optimal ratio between arterioles and venules that matches closely that observed across mammalian cortical vasculature. Low-flow regions are reshaped in complex ways by changes in vascular conductance, creating geometric challenges for matching cortical perfusion with neuronal activity.
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