The cell bodies of hypothalamic secretory neurons are localized in areas protected by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), whereas their axon terminals are localized in the median eminence, which lacks a BBB. This implies a complex barrier system, allowing neurons of the central nervous system to secrete into the blood stream without making the BBB leaky. In the present study, three experimental protocols were applied to clarify certain relevant aspects of the barriers operating in the medial basal hypothalamus of the rat. We established that the milieu of the arcuate nucleus is exposed to both the ventricular and the subarachnoidal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The median eminence milieu, the perivascular space of the portal vessels, and the subarachnoid space appear to be in open communication; also, beta2-tanycytes establish an efficient barrier between the median eminence milieu and the ventricular CSF. Similarly, beta1-tanycytes establish a lateral barrier, separating the intercellular space of the median eminence from that of the arcuate nucleus. We also found that the glucose transporter I (GLUT I), a BBB marker, is localized throughout the whole plasma membrane of beta1-tanycytes, but is missing from beta2-tanycytes. Expression of GLUT I by tanycytes progressively develops during the first postnatal weeks; while the degree of damage of the arcuate nucleus by administration of monosodium glutamate, at different postnatal intervals, parallels that of the GLUT I immunoreactivity of beta1-tanycytes. An explanation is offered for the selective destruction of the arcuate neurons by the parenteral administration of monosodium glutamate to infant rats.
The subcommissural organ (SCO) secretes glycoproteins into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that aggregate and form Reissner's fiber (RF). The factors involved in this aggregation are not known. One factor may be the hydrodynamics of the CSF when flowing through the aqueduct. This hypothesis was tested by isografting rat SCO and xenografting bovine SCO into the lateral ventricle of rats. Xenografts were either fresh bovine SCO or explants cultured for 30 days before transplantation. The grafts were investigated by electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry using antibodies against RF glycoproteins, serotonin and the glucose transporter I. Maximal time of transplantation was 43 days for isografts and 14 days for xenografts. The isografts were not reinnervated but were revascularized; they secreted into the ventricle RF glycoproteins that became progressively packed into pre-RF and RF structures identical to those formed by the SCO in situ. RF was confined to the host ventricle and at its distal end the constituent proteins disassembled. Xenografts were neither reinnervated nor revascularized and secreted into the host ventricle a material that never formed an RF. These findings indicate that the CSF factor responsible for the formation of RF is species specific, and that this process does not depend on the hydrodynamics of the CSF. The blood vessels revascularizing the isografted SCO acquired the characteristics of the vessels irrigating the SCO in situ, namely, a tight endothelium displaying glucose transporter I, and a perivascular space containing long-spacing collagen, thus indicating that basal release of glycoproteins may also occur in the grafted SCO.
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