Morphology of ventricular wall surfaces following neurotoxin induced degeneration of supraependymal afferents.

Following intraventricular injection of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine in rats and survival periods up to 25 weeks, the supraependymal serotonergic axon plexus in the lateral and fourth ventricle, except for the plexus upon the hippocampal fimbria in some cases, showed no evidence of regenerative capacities. This contrasts with many reports on regeneration of intraparenchymal serotonergic fibre systems in the mammalian brain following mechanical or neurotoxin-induced experimental degeneration. The supraependymal plexus appears to be critically involved in maintainance of normal ependymal integrity in that following its experimentally induced death many ependymal cells exhibit various pathological alterations in all regions examined. Degeneration of this plexus is also associated with heavy phagocytotic reactions. Morphology, distribution and possible origins of supraependymal macrophages are briefly discussed.