Computer reconstruction of the three-dimensional structure of mouse cerebral ventricles

In the brain, the cerebral ventricles are important as the site of cerebrospinal fluid production. The cerebral ventricles consist of the lateral ventricles, the third ventricle and the fourth ventricle, and their stereoscopic structures and the connections between them are not visible from outside of the brain. Observation of the stereoscopic structure of cerebral ventricles is possible by producing a mold preparation of the ventricular system [Systematic Human Anatomy (1984) 589; A Colour Atlas of Human Anatomy (1993) 79; J. Anat. 68 (1934) 480; Brain 75 (1952) 259]. However, this method does not facilitate visualization of the position of the ventricles within the brain or the positional relationships between the cerebral ventricles and other structures. Murine brains are often used in studies of hydrocephalus [Mol. Cell. Biol. 22 (2002) 2769; Brain Res. 891 (2001) 247]. Rolf et al. have reported that a few L1 mutant mice display severe hydrocephalus and suggested that, in such mice, massively enlarged ventricles create deformations of the brain, which secondarily cause stenosis of the aqueducts followed by severe hydrocephalus [Brain Res. 891 (2001) 247]. The three-dimensional structure of murine cerebral ventricles reconstructed on a computer display would be extremely useful not only for stereoscopic observation of the cerebral ventricles in murine brains but also in morphological analysis of murine cerebral ventricles using additional software for three-dimensional measurement. We therefore attempted a three-dimensional computer reconstruction of the cerebral ventricles from serial histological sections of whole mouse brain in order to facilitate research into hydrocephalus using mouse models. In this study, mouse brain is fixed in formalin and then embedded in paraffin after immersion in celloidin. Serial histological sections are produced and digitized, and outlines of the brain surface and cerebral ventricular faces are traced on printouts. Serial drawings are again digitized, and the three-dimensional structure of the brain surface and cerebral ventricles is reconstructed on the computer using reconstruction software. Using this technique, we accurately described the mouse brain surface and cerebral ventricle faces on a computer display.