Migration of monocytes after intracerebral injection at entorhinal cortex lesion site.

Abstract After axonal lesion in the CNS, intracerebrally injected green fluorescent monocytes migrate through the cribroid plate and subsequently accumulate in deep cervical lymph nodes. The lack of classical lymph vessels within brain tissue complicates immune surveillance of the CNS, and therefore, cellular emigration out of the CNS parenchyma requires alternate pathways. Whereas invasion of blood-derived mononuclear cells and their transformation into ramified, microglia-like cells in areas of axonal degeneration across an intact BBB have been demonstrated, it still remained unclear whether these cells reside permanently, undergo apoptosis, or leave the brain to present antigen in lympho…