Animal models of Chronic Brain Vascular Injury: Predictive of Vascular Dementia?

The chronic brain vascular injury represents a severe risk factor involved in cerebral dysfunction. Actually, among different cerebral tissues, the white matter lesion is associated to cerebrovascular risk factor. On the other hand, the cerebral hypoperfusion, which may result from small vessel disease (SVD), is closely linked to the development of white matter injury. In general, in the cognitive impairment pathogenesis [Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or vascular dementia (VaD)], the neurodegenerative and vascular factors combination, point out the hemodynamic abnormalities including cerebral hypoperfusion. The brain vascular disorders represent a pivotal issue that merits a careful consideration. Chronic hypertension and cerebral amyloid angiopathy are the main pathogenic causes of vascular disease. Unfortunately, these disorders induce the rupture of cerebral vessels and intracerebral hemorrhages as a result of degenerative alteration in the vascular wall. Among the risk facotrs, the hypertension relevance and its consequences on different body districts is well known and are largely studied. Furthermore, SVD is a common cause of lacunar stroke, ischemic white matter lesions and vascular cognitive impairment (VCI), encompassing VaD. Therefore, the presence of animal models of hypertension (spontaneously hypertensive rats) and microvessel vasculopathy could help to understand the pathogenic mechanisms of different neurodegenerative diseases where are involved hypertension and (micro)vascular disorders. Among these models, the human cerebral SVD, could be useful. However, this presentation would like to highlight the importance of different animal models of hypertension, SVD, VCI, and VaD to demonstrate that these models could be also reliable means for studying of neurodegenerative and cognitive disorders.