Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Nov 6;33(45):17553-9.
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3258-13.2013.

The choroid plexus and cerebrospinal fluid: emerging roles in development, disease, and therapy

Maria K Lehtinen  1 , Christopher S Bjornsson, Susan M Dymecki, Richard J Gilbertson, David M Holtzman, Edwin S Monuki
Affiliations
Review

The choroid plexus and cerebrospinal fluid: emerging roles in development, disease, and therapy

Maria K Lehtinen et al. J Neurosci. .

Abstract

Although universally recognized as the source of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the choroid plexus (ChP) has been one of the most understudied tissues in neuroscience. The reasons for this are multiple and varied, including historical perceptions about passive and permissive roles for the ChP, experimental issues, and lack of clinical salience. However, recent work on the ChP and instructive signals in the CSF have sparked new hypotheses about how the ChP and CSF provide unexpected means for regulating nervous system structure and function in health and disease, as well as new ChP-based therapeutic approaches using pluripotent stem cell technology. This minisymposium combines new and established investigators to capture some of the newfound excitement surrounding the ChP-CSF system.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
CSF secretion and flow. The CSF is secreted by the choroid plexus, a tissue located in each ventricle in the brain. CSF flows from the lateral ventricles to the third and fourth ventricles, then into the subarachnoid space of the brain and spinal cord via openings (foramena) below the cerebellum. CSF is then resorbed into the peripheral circulation by arachnoid granulations in venous sinuses of the brain.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Overview of ChP-CSF–brain interactions. In addition to secreting CSF, ChP epithelial cells secrete morphogens and proteins with sites of action within the ChP (e.g., Shh on vasculature and ChP progenitor cells) and beyond the ChP on neural stem cells (e.g., IGF2 on cerebral cortical progenitor cells, and cytokines on adult neural stem cells). The ChP can be the site of tumorigenesis (brown). It also plays a role in protecting the brain from Aβ toxicity. Because there is an exchange between the brain's interstitial fluid and CSF (perforated line), the ratio of phosphorylated Tau:Aβ provides an early diagnostic for Alzheimer's disease and can predict the severity of neurodegenerative decline. Recent advances have made possible the engineering and production of ES-derived ChP epithelial cells (green).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
ChP-secreted signals instruct neurogenesis. A, In the developing embryonic brain, the ChP secretes a library of signaling activities, including insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2). CSF-IGF2 binds to the apical surface of cerebral cortical progenitor cells (neuroepithelial cells [NEC]; radial glial cells [RG]) located in the ventricular zone (VZ) immediately adjacent to the CSF, and to their primary cilia (arrowhead), which extend into the CSF. CSF-IGF2 instructs progenitor cell division in an age-dependent manner. B, In the adult brain, the ChP secretes many factors into the CSF, including the cytokine IL-1β. CSF-IL-1β regulates the quiescence of adult neural stem cells (B cells), which contact the CSF via a primary cilium (arrowhead), while retaining contact with blood vessels (BV). E, Ependymal cells; C, transit amplifying cells; A, neuroblasts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Atkinson JM, Shelat AA, Carcaboso AM, Kranenburg TA, Arnold LA, Boulos N, Wright K, Johnson RA, Poppleton H, Mohankumar KM, Féau C, Phoenix T, Gibson P, Zhu L, Tong Y, Eden C, Ellison DW, Priebe W, Koul D, Yung WK, et al. An integrated in vitro and in vivo high-throughput screen identifies treatment leads for ependymoma. Cancer Cell. 2011;20:384–399. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2011.08.013. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Awatramani R, Soriano P, Rodriguez C, Mai JJ, Dymecki SM. Cryptic boundaries in roof plate and choroid plexus identified by intersectional gene activation. Nat Genet. 2003;35:70–75. doi: 10.1038/ng1228. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bailey P. Morphology of the roof plate of the forebrain and the lateral choroid plexuses in the human embryo. J Comp Neurol. 1915;26:79–120.
    1. Bateman RJ, Munsell LY, Morris JC, Swarm R, Yarasheski KE, Holtzman DM. Human amyloid-beta synthesis and clearance rates as measured in cerebrospinal fluid in vivo. Nat Med. 2006;12:856–861. doi: 10.1038/nm1438. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bitgood MJ, McMahon AP. Hedgehog and Bmp genes are coexpressed at many diverse sites of cell–cell interaction in the mouse embryo. Dev Biol. 1995;172:126–138. doi: 10.1006/dbio.1995.0010. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms