Figure 5

Autometallography of blood vessels. (a) A small leptomeningeal blood vessel (BV1), partially embedded in the superficial frontal cortex, contains ^AMGPTEs in its wall (left inset, closed arrowhead). An adjacent larger leptomeningeal blood vessel (BV2) contains no ^AMGPTEs. Right inset: a microvessel within the cortex contains ^AMGPTEs (thin arrow), with an adjacent astrocyte cell body connected via a hypertrophic process (open arrowhead). Middle inset: in the white matter (WM) from the same patient, another ^AMGPTE-containing microvessel (thin arrow) connects to an astrocyte cell body via a hypertrophic astrocytic process (open arrowhead). MS18. AMG/GFAP/H. (b) Microvessels (closed arrowhead) in the white matter of the anterior pons contain more ^AMGPTEs than microvessels (open arrowhead) in the adjacent grey matter. MS18 AMG/LFB/CV. (c) Crossing white matter tracts in the anterior pons contain mostly horizontally arrayed microvessels with ^AMGPTEs in their walls (closed arrowheads). In descending white matter tracts, the transversely sectioned microvessels indicate ^AMGPTEs are present in the vessel walls (both insets, open arrowheads). In the upper inset an AMG-stained thread extends from one microvessel (arrow). MS18. AMG/H. (d) Numerous microvessels in the thalamus contain ^AMGPTEs (thin arrows, also in enlarged inset). One larger blood vessel (open arrow), with a wall thickness of about 5 µm, does not contain ^AMGPTEs. A smaller blood vessel, with a wall thickness of about 1 µm, contains ^AMGPTEs (closed arrow). Inset: scattered thalamic neurons contain AMG grains within yellow–brown lipofuscin (open arrowhead). MS18. AMG/H. (e) Most microvessels in the lateral geniculate nucleus contain ^AMGPTEs (closed arrowheads), but neuronal cell bodies (open arrowheads) do not. 1-µm-thick AMG-stained threads extend from several microvessels (thin arrows) and connect to adjacent microvessels (inset). MS18. AMG/LFB/CV. (f) In the frontal white matter, ^AMGPTE deposits are seen in a microvessel wall and in surrounding pericytes (inset, closed arrowheads). Lower inset: scattered oligodendrocytes have small ^AMGPTE deposits (arrow) adjacent to their nuclei. MS18. AMG/LFB/CV. (g) A chronic demyelinated MS plaque in the anterior pons contains numerous small blood vessels (open arrowheads) MBP/H. Left inset: scattered microvessels within the plaque have ^AMGPTE-containing perivascular macrophages (arrow). Right inset: small ^AMGPTE collections (arrows) are present in intra-plaque microvessels. Insets: AMG/H MS14. (h) A chronic demyelinated MS plaque in the occipital white matter has scattered astrocytes with small cytoplasmic ^AMGPTE deposits (arrows, also in enlarged inset). Two small blood vessels (BV) within the plaque contain no ^AMGPTEs. MS09. AMG/GFAP/H.