Fig. 14

Blast-induced thickening of the basal lamina surrounding the brain vasculature at 13 months post-blast exposure. Electron micrographs of small vessels in the frontal cortex of blast-exposed a and control animal b. Note that in the vessel from the blast-exposed animal a compared to control b, there is enhanced thickness of the vascular basal lamina (arrows), a reduction of luminal space, swelling of the endothelial nucleus, and reduction of astrocytic endfeet contacts. The endothelial membrane in contact with the lumen is distorted and has an irregular "wavy" pattern. Also, note that in panel a the cytosol of the remaining astrocytes lack the ribosomal density present in the normal astrocytic cytoplasm of control vessels b. Scale bar, 1 µm