Investigating the Lymphatic Drainage of the Brain: Essential Skills and Tools

Methods Mol Biol. 2017:1559:343-365. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6786-5_24.

Abstract

In this chapter we describe in detail the surgical and imaging techniques employed for the study of the anatomical routes of drainage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and interstitial fluid (ISF) from the brain. The types of tracers, sites of injection, and volumes injected are crucial. For example, when testing the drainage of ISF from the parenchyma, volumes larger than 0.5 μL result in spillage of ISF into the ventricular CSF.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Cerebrospinal fluid; Cisterna magna injections; Interstitial fluid; Intraparenchymal stereotactic injections; Mouse brain; Perivascular lymphatic drainage; Rodent perfusion; Solute clearance.

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / cerebrospinal fluid*
  • Alzheimer Disease / pathology
  • Animals
  • Cisterna Magna
  • Extracellular Fluid / chemistry
  • Extracellular Fluid / metabolism*
  • Fixatives / chemistry
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry
  • Formaldehyde / chemistry
  • Hippocampus
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry / methods*
  • Injections, Intraventricular
  • Lymphatic Vessels / metabolism
  • Lymphatic Vessels / ultrastructure*
  • Mice
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence / methods*
  • Parenchymal Tissue
  • Perfusion / methods
  • Polymers / chemistry
  • Stereotaxic Techniques*
  • Tissue Embedding / methods
  • Xanthenes / chemistry

Substances

  • Fixatives
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Polymers
  • Xanthenes
  • Formaldehyde
  • Texas red
  • paraform