MORPHOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

CEREBRAL ARTERIES
Encephalon is irrigated by 4 large vessels:

- 2 Internal carotid arteries

(they irrigate the diencephalon and telencephalon)

- 2 Vertebral arteries
(they irrigate the brainstem and cerebellum)

Anastomosed at the base of the brain

↓
Posterior communicating artery (collateral of internal carotid artery)
↓ form
Cerebral arterial circle / Wilis' arterial polygon.
Cerebral capillaries
BRAIN (particularly the gray matter) : area with more metabolic activity
↓
has high capillary density.

Brain capillaries 

- constitute blood-brain barrier

- not porous

- don’t have fenestrations

- form tight junctions

Special features of brain
- Human brain ~ 1.5 kg, about 2% of body mass

- Receives 14% of resting cardiac output

- Accounts for ~ 20% of resting O2 consumption

- Mean blood flow, whole brain: 55 ml min-1 100 g -1

- Basal blood flow, grey matter: 100 ml min-1 100 g -1

- Grey matter (40% of brain) is extremely intolerant of hypoxia. Primary requirement is
∴ maximum SECURITY of blood supply.

- Grey matter has a very high O2 consumption, so it requires a HIGH blood flow (100
ml/min/100 g is 20x that to resting muscle).

- To protect the O2 supply from interruption by blockage of an artery, the major

cerebral arteries anastomose, forming the circle of Willis

- To achieve a high O2 delivery to neurons, capillary density is very high

(3000–4000 per mm2)
Cerebral blood flow
REGULATION OF THE CEREBRAL CIRCULATION

- Nervous mechanism

- Chemical-metabolic type factors

- Mechanical factors

- Endothelial factors
Neural innervation

SNS not too important (CVR 5-10%)

The autonomic nervous system is

extremely important in the control
of MAP and therefore CPP, but has
a small contribution to CVR (5 – 10%).
Chemical factors
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Mechanical factors : blood pressure
Autoregulation of cerebral blood flow
Intracranial pressure
Measurement of blood flow
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