Ultrastructural observations of the development of the fourth ventricular roof in the mouse brain

The developmental changes of the fourth ventricular roof of the brain in mouse fetuses and neonates were observed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy with particular attention to the caudal portion where a median foramen might be formed during the fetal period. The fourth ventricular roof was continuously paved with a single layer of cuboidal or squamous neuroepithelial cells with poorly developed basement membrane until the 12th intrauterine day when the primitive choroid plexus appeared at the middle portion of the roof. With development of the choroid plexus, the roof caudal to the choroid plexus (membranous roof) became thinner, and it was mostly lined with a single layer of flat ependymal cells having cilia and microvilli and resting on a continuous basement membrane. These ependymal cells were connected with one another by a gap junction or an intermediate junction for the entire period examined, except at the 13th to 14th intrauterine days, during which the interependymal clefts were transiently widened up to 2 microns in width, in places, without disruption of the continuous basement membrane. Neither a median aperture nor wide intercellular pores were formed in the membranous roof during the fetal or neonatal term.