Cerebral microthrombi promote focal Cav-1-dependent blood-brain barrier impairment, triggering neuroinflammation and neuronal damage after traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is frequently accompanied by blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction, yet the microvascular events that initiate barrier failure and secondary neural injury remain poorly understood. Using highly sensitive fluorescent nanoscale tracers, correlative light and electron microscopy, single-cell transcriptomics, and genetic manipulation of Caveolin-1 (Cav-1), we show that BBB leakage after TBI in mice occurs focally at sites of cerebral microthrombus formation. Endothelial cells adjacent to microthrombi remain structurally intact, but exhibit a distinct transcriptional program enriched in both thrombosis- and transcytosis-related genes, including Cav-1. Microthrombi promote Cav-1-dependent transcytosis and size-selective extravasation of blood-borne proteins, exposing the surrounding parenchyma to circulating factors and inducing focal microglia activation and neuronal damage in vivo. In human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons, these proteins directly impaired neuronal structure and network function. Genetic deletion of Cav-1 markedly reduces microthrombus-associated BBB leakage, immune-cell diapedesis, microglial activation and neuronal loss, whereas endothelial re-expression of Cav-1 using AAVs restores leakage. Human TBI data reveal early dynamic coagulation dysregulation associated with adverse clinical outcome, focal cerebral vascular injury and endothelial transcriptional signatures consistent with reduced barrier integrity and increased caveolae-associated transport. Together, these findings identify cerebral microthrombi as focal sites of Cav-1-dependent BBB dysfunction and establish pathological endothelial transcytosis as a mechanistic link between post-traumatic microvascular thrombosis, blood protein extravasation and secondary neuronal injury. Targeting Cav-1-dependent transcytosis may therefore provide a strategy to limit pathological BBB permeability and secondary injury after TBI.