Copyright: © 2026 by the authors. Licensee: Pirogov University.
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Assessing functional activity of microglia and macrophages in barrier-associated brain areas of spontaneously hypertensive rats

About authors

Institute of Experimental Medicine, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Correspondence should be addressed: Valeria A. Razenkova
Akademika Pavlova, 12, Saint Petersburg, 197376, Russia; ur.xednay@zar.ayirelav

About paper

Funding: the study received financil support from the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 24-15-00032, https://rscf.ru/en/project/24-15-00032/

Author contribution: Razenkova VA — setting up immunohistochemistry reactions, interpretation of results, image manipulation, manuscript writing; Korzhevskii DE — concept, study planning, literature review, manuscript editing.

Compliance with ethical standards: the study approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Experimental Medicine (protocol No. 2/24 dated 25 April 2024) was conducted in accordance with provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (2013)

Received: 2026-02-04 Accepted: 2026-02-21 Published online: 2026-02-28
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The cerebrovascular disorder associated with arterial hypertension results in neuroinflammation, in which microglia and macrophages of the brain are actively involved. The study aimed to assess functional activity and immunophenotype of microglia and macrophages in the areas of brain barriers in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Specimens of the brain of male Wistar rats and SHR (age 3–4 months, n = 10) were used. The study involved the use of immunohistochemistry analysis and confocal laser microscopy. The presence of М2 activation (CD206) and phagocytic activity (CD68) markers in the population of microglia and macrophages was assessed. It was shown that the CD206 protein was present in perivascular cells, the counts of which were considerably increased in SHR (40.69 ± 4.87 cells per 1 mm2 vs. 28.73 ± 1.39 in Wistar rats; t-test, р = 0.0007). The quantitative analysis conducted allowed us to identify the upward trend of the share of phagocytic cells in the brain of SHR compared to Wistar rats. No changes in the CD68 protein distribution were found in SHR, therefore, activation of microglia and macrophages is not accompanied by the phagocytic activity increase. The findings suggest alternative activation of brain macrophages in neuroinflammation caused by arterial hypertension.

Keywords: immunohistochemistry, neuroinflammation, microglia, macrophages, spontaneously hypertensive rats

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