Differential permeability to horseradish peroxidase in affected and non-affected ventricular walls during postnatal development of normal and hydrocephalic hyh mice

Abstract

Hyh mutant mice suffer a congenital hydrocephalus triggered by ependyma denudation [1]. The ventricular surface in non hydrocephalic newborn mice is lined by the immature ependyma, which is characterized for being vimentin (-) and S100β (-), at variance in the adult animals the mature ependyma expresses vimentin and S100β [2]. On the other hand, in the hydrocephalic mice the ependyma begins to denudate on the 12th day of gestation, and at PN8 only some areas of lateral ventricle are still endowed with ependyma. In parallel, astroglia starts to cover the denuded surface forming a new cell layer, the glial scar, which lines the damaged ventricular surface. We have studied the permeability to horseradish peroxidase (HRP) of these four regions at the ventricular wills: mature ependyma, and denuded areas with or without glial scar.