The anatomy and metabolome of the lymphatic system in the brain in health and disease

作者：Wenbo He, Jing You, Qianfen Wan, Ke Xiao, Kening Chen, Yuan Lu, Liang Li, Ya‐Jie Tang, Yunte Deng, Zhaohui Yao, Junqiu Yue, Gang Cao · 发表于：Brain Pathology · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1111/bpa.12805 · 被引用次数：25 · 研究领域：Cerebrospinal fluid and hydrocephalus、Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications、Neonatal and fetal brain pathology

Recent studies have demonstrated that the brain is equipped with a lymphatic drainage system that is actively involved in parenchymal waste clearance, brain homeostasis and immune regulation. However, the exact anatomic drainage routes of brain lymph fluid (BLF) remain elusive, hampering the physiological study and clinical application of this system. In this study, we systematically dissected the anatomy of the BLF pathways in a rat model. Moreover, we developed a protocol to collect BLF from the afferent lymphatic vessels of deep cervical lymph nodes (dcLNs) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the fourth ventricle. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that BLF contains more metabolites than CSF, suggesting that BLF might be a more sensitive indicator of brain dynamics under physiological and pathological conditions. Finally, we identified several metabolites as potential diagnostic biomarkers for glioma, Parkinson's disease and CNS infectious diseases. Together, these data may provide insight into the physiology of the lymphatic system in the brain and into the clinical diagnosis of CNS disorders.