Age-dependent susceptibility in mumps-associated hydrocephalus: neuropathologic features and brain barriers

Central nervous system susceptibility to viral infection is often age dependent for unclear reasons. In this study, we examined the age-dependent susceptibility of the brain in mumps virus-induced hydrocephalus in hamsters, and evaluated the relationship between neuropathologic features and brain barriers using glial fibrillary acidic protein and zonula occludentes 1 (ZO-1) immunohistochemistry. In a group intracerebrally inoculated with mumps virus at 2 days of age, pathologic findings such as periventricular edema, ependymal cell loss, and ventricular dilation were more prominent and the distribution of mumps virus antigen was wider than in a group inoculated at 30 days of age. ZO-1-immunoreactive tight junctions in the hydrocephalic brains of the 2-day group were severely damaged in the choroid plexus and ependyma, and in white matter capillaries as early as 3 days after inoculation. These changes were not apparent in the hydrocephalic brains of the 30-day group. Prominent cortical dissemination of virus in the 2-day group was related to underdeveloped perivascular glial foot processes in brain parenchyma. Periventricular edema in the 2-day group was linked to ependymal and blood-brain barrier tight-junction permeability. Our results suggest that tight junctions in the early postnatal period are more immature and fragile than in the adult. We concluded that brain susceptibility in mumps virus-induced hydrocephalus is intimately related to the maturity of brain barriers.