Fig. 5: Circulating venous endothelial cell levels are elevated in human subjects with cerebrovascular disease burden.

a Schematic of study workflow. Human subjects underwent blood sample collection, magnetic resonance imaging and arterial spin labeling. Flow cytometry analysis on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was used to identify circulating endothelial cells (CECs) based on the immunophenotypic markers of CD45⁻ /CD31 ⁺/CD133⁻ /DNA⁺, followed by characterization with brain venous marker, ACKR1. Created in BioRender. Wazny, V. (2025) https://BioRender.com/9ypd05j. b Spearman’s correlation analysis between cerebral tissue perfusion, measured by arterial spin labeling, with the number of CECs per million PBMCs. Subjects were grouped by Fazekas scores. Spearman’s correlation coefficient r and p values (two-tailed test) are indicated. c Quantification of the number of CECs per million PBMCs (left), and percentage of ACKR1+ CECs (right) in subjects grouped by presence (Fazekas >0, n = 39 individual participants) or absence (Fazekas = 0, n = 5 individual participants) of cerebrovascular disease burden. Data points represent mean \(\pm\) s.e.m.; Mann-Whitney test (two-sided); *p < 0.05 and ns non-significant. d Correlation analysis between the percentage of ACKR1⁺ CECs and Z-scores of various cognitive functions. Spearman’s correlation coefficient r and p values (two-tailed test) are indicated for executive function Z-scores. Pearson’s correlation coefficient r and p values (two-tailed) are indicated for language and global cognitive Z-scores e Proportional analysis of zero (0), low ( < 95^th percentile), and high ( > 95^th percentile) percentages of ACKR1⁺ CECs in subjects grouped by negative and positive global cognitive Z-scores. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.