On the anatomic relation of choroid plexus to brain: a comparative study

The size of choroid plexuses and cerebral ventricles relative to brain varies widely among vertebrates. The functional significance of this variability has attracted little attention since Herrick's original proposal that large choroid plexuses might enhance oxygen delivery to the brain and therefore be of adaptive value in the transition of vertebrates from water to air breathing. We compared choroid plexus and brain weight or ventricular and brain volume in 40 species from nine vertebrate groups. Both choroid plexus weight and ventricular volume were unrelated to brain size. Plexus weight ranged from 0 to 5.2% of brain weight and ventricular volume from 0.9 to 132% of brain volume. Amid this diversity the dipnoans, chondrosteans, holosteans, amphibians, and crossopterygian examined in this study are exceptional in uniformly having large plexuses. The adaptive significance of large choroid plexuses may lie in the presence of specific homeostatic mechanisms and their role in the response to the increases in PCO2 that accompany the transition to air breathing.