ABSTRACT
Although vascular maturation is a critical step in all tissues, this is perhaps even more so in the cerebral vasculature, where it contributes to formation of the blood-brain barrier. Vascular maturation involves the formation of endothelial cell-cell junctions and the recruitment of surrounding pericytes and smooth muscle cells. These changes are largely responsible for the development of organ-specific endothelial characteristics that define the blood-tissue barrier in organs such as the brain and the glomerular endothelium in the kidney (10,11). A key aspect of this phase of vascular development is that endothelial cells stop proliferating, or become quiescent. In contrast to many epithelial tissues, which are replaced over hours to days, the mature endothelium is characterized by a long survival and slow turnover, both on the order of years, while it continues to regulate a number of critical homeostatic processes.
