Pericytes are protective in experimental pneumococcal meningitis through regulating leukocyte infiltration and blood-brain barrier function.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThis study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Research Council, USA) and with the German Animal Protection Act. The study protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the Government of Upper Bavaria (Permit numbers 55.2-1-54-2532.Vet_02-18-169). Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (to UK: KO1974/9-1, to HWP: PFI246/11-1). REK and RG are supported by the DFG (GL691/2; SFB824), the “Wilhelm Sander-Stiftung”, the “Anni-Hofmann Stiftung”, and the “Verein zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Forschung an der Medizinischen Fakultät der LMU München” (WiFoMed). NCT has been supported by a fellowship of the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds."