<INS CITE="MAILTO:CARLA%20SILVA" DATETIME="2026-01-06T13:53" >VENTRALLY-GENERATED NEURAL PROGENITORS MEDIATE VASCULAR REPAIR IN THE CEREBRAL CORTEX DURING </INS><INS CITE="MAILTO:CARLA%20SILVA" DATETIME="2026-01-06T13:54">EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT</INS>

Interneurons and early generated oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are populations that entail extensive migration towards cortical regions during embryonic development in the mouse. Here we describe for the first time that a population of ventral progenitors move away from the ganglionic eminences where interneurons and OPCs are generated and also reach the developing cortex. We discovered in the cortex, these progenitor cells are specialized in detecting vascular damage that spontaneously occur during development. We investigated the dynamics of vascular damage and repair during embryogenesis using an array of approaches, including live imaging, light sheet and expansion microscopy and we found that interaction with the damaged endothelium leads to the differentiation of ventrally-generated progenitors into vascular-associated cells that remain associated with blood vessels in adulthood. We also discovered that the elimination of these vascular-asscoiated cells has a significant impact in interneuron populations later in life.