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Atherosclerotic plaques 'communicate' with the brain. Who knew? Not I, surely. Didn't expect that one at all.

"In correspondence with an atherosclerotic plaque, an aggregate of immune cells is also formed in the external wall of the blood vessel. This aggregate, called ATLO and similar to a lymph node, is rich in nerve fibers. Our work has first of all shown that through them a direct connection is established between the plaque and the brain".

"At this point, we were able to see that these signals coming from the plaque, once they reach the brain, influence the autonomic nervous system through the vagus nerve [the nerve that controls most of our organs and visceral functions] until it reaches the spleen. Here there is an activation of specific cells of the immune system that enter the circulation and lead to the progression of the plaques themselves."

"We have conducted further experiments by interrupting the nerve connections that reach the spleen. In this way, the impulses on the immune cells present in this organ have failed. The result is that the plaques present in the arteries have not only slowed growth, but have stabilized."

The wording is awkward because it was translated from Italian to English. The research itself is strangeness, too. Apparently the immune system responds to plaques by infiltrating them in the outer connective tissue coat of the arteries with immune cells called leukocytes. The peripheral nervous system expands its networks here and connects to the immune cells with something called growth cones at axon endings. Signals go from here to the spine and up to the brain to the parabrachial and central amygdala neurons. The parabrachial neurons are neurons at the intersection of the brainstem and the cerebellum.

Apparently all of this actually makes the plaques worse. Interrupting this brain circuit with a "coeliac ganglionectomy" stops progression of the plaque and stabilizes it. The coeliac ganglia are two large masses of nerve tissue in the upper abdomen.

Ricerca. Le placche aterosclerotiche “dialogano” con il cervello - Istituto Neuromed

#discoveries #neuroscience #atherosclerosis

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