Using a rat model of CPM to study white-matter degeneration, it was found that blood–brain barrier breakdown, detected with MRI, was associated with a higher risk of developing demyelination, as detected using postmortem histopathology (Adler et al. 2000). This study demonstrated that blood–brain barrier disruption exposes oligodendrocytes to substances normally excluded from the brain. This supports hypotheses from human postmortem studies suggesting that damage to the pons may be linked to reduced blood flow, as indicated by findings that basilar artery architecture is altered in CMP (De Reuck et al. 1975).
