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The blood-brain barrier (BBB) includes anatomical, physicochemical, and biochemical mechanisms that control the exchange of materials between blood and brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Thus two distinct systems, the BBB and the blood-CSF barrier systems, control cerebral homeostasis. However, both systems are unique, the BBB having a 5000-fold greater surface area than the blood-CSF barrier (1,2). The concentrations of substances in brain interstitium, which is determined by transport through the BBB, can differ markedly from concentrations in CSF, the composition of which is determined by secretory processes in the choroid plexus epithelia (3). This review will focus on cellular components of cerebral vessels with emphasis on endothelium, basement membrane, and pericytes as well as the perivascular macrophage (Figs. 1 and 2 A), which in light of new information is distinct …