Studies of the development of brain barrier systems to lipid insoluble molecules in fetal sheep

1. The development of the blood-brain and blood-c.s.f barriers to lipid insoluble substances of different molecular radii has been studied in fetal sheep, early (60 days) and late (125 days) in gestation, using labelled erythritol (C14), sucrose (3H or 14C), inulin (3H or 14C) and albumin (125I), or albumin and IgG detected by immunoassay. 2. Morphological studies of fetal brain and choroid plexus at the same gestational stages were carried out using thin section electron microscopy and the freeze fracture techniques. 3. Penetration of markers into c.s.f. was substantially greater at 60 days than at 125 days, but at both ages the steady-state level achieved appeared to be related to molecular size. 4. A simple model describing penetration from blood into c.s.f. at 60 days is proposed. It involves the assumption that c.s.f. and brain extracellular fluid are effectively separate compartments; morphological and permeability data which supports this assumption is presented. The data for c.s.f. at 60 days are consistent with the suggestion that the markers penetrate into c.s.f. by diffusion and are not restricted by small pores in the interface between blood and c.s.f. 5. The reduction in penetration which occurred by 125 days for all markers except erythritol appears to be accounted for by an increase in the sink effect and a decrease in the effective surface area for exchange between blood and c.s.f. 6. Intercellular tight junctions of both cerebral endothelial cells and choroid plexus epithelial cells were well formed at 60 days gestation. There was no change in junctional characteristics previously thought to correlate with transepithelial permeability (tight junction depth and strand number) between the two ages studied, although there were marked changes in permeability. 7. Evidence is advanced in support of the hypothesis that in the fetus much of the penetration of lipid insoluble non-polar substances across the blood-c.s.f. barrier and perhaps across the blood-brain barrier occurs via a transcellular route consisting of a system of tubulo-cisternal endoplasmic reticulum. Penetration via the choroid plexus appears to be the dominant route for penetration from blood into c.s.f. in the 60 day fetus.