Neuropathologic evidence of endothelial changes in cerebral small vessel disease

OBJECTIVES: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is common in aged brains and causes lacunar stroke, diffuse white matter lesions (leukoaraiosis), and vascular cognitive impairment. The pathogenesis is unknown. Endothelial dysfunction is a possible causal factor, and circulating markers of endothelial activation (intercellular adhesion molecule-1, thrombomodulin) and inflammation (interleukin IL-6) are elevated in patients with SVD. In this case-control study, we tested whether brain endothelial ICAM1, thrombomodulin, and IL-6 are altered in SVD. METHODS: We examined small penetrating cerebral arteries of pathologically diagnosed SVD cases, aged controls without SVD, young control cases with no brain pathology, and cases with early-onset hereditary SVD (cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy CADASIL). All tissues had minimal cerebral amyloid angiopathy or other Alzheimer pathology. RESULTS: Thrombomodulin immunoreactivity was present in all aged SVD, aged control, and CADASIL cases, primarily in small artery endothelium. Thrombomodulin was augmented in aged SVD cases compared with aged controls (p = 0.012) and in vessels with higher sclerotic index (an indicator of SVD severity; p < 0.01). Thrombomodulin was sparse/absent in young controls. Endothelial ICAM1 and IL-6 were rarely seen, and were not related to SVD. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that cerebral endothelial activation in deep penetrating arteries is not associated with SVD. Endothelial thrombomodulin increased with SVD severity, and CADASIL data suggest that this may be a cerebral response to SVD. Elevated thrombomodulin may be a protective agent in SVD. Our data confirm endothelial involvement in SVD.