[Composition and physiologic functions of spinal fluid]

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was examined by the immunological method in 24 patients with mature, and 35 patients with immature cerebral tumours, as well as in 10 patients with Guillain Barre's and 16 patients with Landry's polyneuritis. The control group consisted of 42 patients who had no nervous pathologies. The immunomorphological composition of the normal CSF, as well as the CSF in polyneuritis and brain tumours was disclosed. The presence of lymphoid cells of various populations, and immunoglobulins of various classes in the normal CSF was demonstrated. On the basis of the data obtained the authors come to a conclusion that one of the basic CSF functions is an immunological, but not only nutritional and metabolic ones, as it has been thought before. The presence of a specific protective immunological cerebral barrier in the central nervous system is substantiated. This barrier is formed by the T- and B-lymphocyte systems. These lymphocytes also exercise the immunological control in the subarachnoidal space.