TSPO and snowflake vitreoretinal degeneration: Fourth, a further suggested pathogenic process is inflammation, both systemic and within the CNS.4 Inflammatory cells are found in the white matter of some postmortem brains from patients with SVD.60,64,107 Evidence for CNS inflammation is also supported by positron emission tomography imaging of patients with SVD, using radioligands such as 11C-PK11195 targeted against the translocator protein, a mitochondrial surface protein upregulated in microglial activation.