The permeation of several materials into the fluids of the rabbit's brain

1. (24)Na, (36)Cl and (35)S thiourea were infused I.V. in rabbits according to schedules designed to yield approximately level activity in plasma for periods up to 5 hr. Cerebrospinal fluid was sampled before ending the experiment by decapitation and the radioactivities in cerebrospinal fluid and in homogenized brain were compared in each case to a time weighted mean value for plasma.2. The results are considered in terms of a simplified model which specifically acknowledges the continuity of the extracellular and cerebrospinal fluids and thus the coupling between processes which occur at the interfaces bordering those fluids.3. From the rate constants for exchange across the blood-brain interface that were necessary for simulation of the observed behaviours, permeability coefficients for that interface were estimated for the materials studied and, from experiments of others, for (42)K.