The Blood-Cerebrospinal Fluid Barrier Is Selective for Red Cabbage Anthocyanins and Their Metabolites

The study aim was to determine whether strongly bioactive hydrophilic red cabbage anthocyanins possess the ability to cross the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (blood-CSF barrier) and whether there is a selectivity of this barrier toward these compounds. To fulfill objectives, red cabbage preparation, containing nonacylated and acylated anthocyanins, was administered to 16 sheep with implanted cannulas into the brain third ventricle, and next, within 10 h, blood, urine, and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were collected and analyzed with HPLC-MS/MS. Though, in blood plasma and urine after red cabbage intake, both, acylated and nonacylated anthocyanins and their metabolites occurred, but only nonacylated derivatives were present in the CSF, and their changes in the profile and concentration in the CSF resulted from the fluctuation of these pigments' concentration and profile in blood, their different abilities to permeate via the blood-CSF barrier, and their transformations in this barrier. Results indicate that the blood-CSF barrier is selective for red cabbage anthocyanins.