Drainage of macromolecules from the Caudato-Putamen of rat brain

To study the drainage of interstitial fluid and macromolecules from the brain parenchyma, an improved method was developed to inject tracers including Chinese ink in group I and phycoerythrin (PE) in group II into the right caudato-putamen of rat brain. Rats were sacrificed on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th, 21st day after injection in group I and at the 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 24 hour in group II. Distribution of tracers was observed by electron microscopy and fluorescence confocal microscopy. The results showed that tracers distributed diffusely in the white matter at all time points whereas they spread selectively along perivascular spaces in the gray matter by 7 days (d) in group I and 5 hours (h) in group II. Chinese ink was ingested by perivascular phagocytes by 7 d after ink injection. The endothelial cells of capillaries in the gray matter had fluorescence staining in cytoplasm and no staining in nuclei by 24 h after PE injection. Animals in group II were stained with tracers in lateral ventricles, bilateral cervical lymph nodes, and the wall of carotid arteries. These results demonstrated that [1] the macromolecules could be cleared from the caudato-putamen through extracellular space of the neuropil in the white matter and perivascular space in the gray matter, [2] perivascular phagocytes and endothelial cells of capillaries played important roles in clearing macromolecules from the perivascular space, and [3] cervical lymph nodes were involved in draining macromolecules from the brain parenchyma.