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. 2015 Aug 15;523(12):1748-55.
doi: 10.1002/cne.23758. Epub 2015 May 12.

Modern cerebrospinal fluid flow research and Heinrich Quincke's seminal 1872 article on the distribution of cinnabar in freely moving animals

Helene Benveniste  1 , Patrick R Hof  2 , Maiken Nedergaard  3 , Karl Bechter  4
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Modern cerebrospinal fluid flow research and Heinrich Quincke's seminal 1872 article on the distribution of cinnabar in freely moving animals

Helene Benveniste et al. J Comp Neurol. .

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No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic drawings of the anatomy described by Quincke pertaining to the organization of the dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater at the level of the skull (A) and spinal cord (B). Quincke described that a subdural space only exists in the brain (described as a ‘capillary fluid layer’, A), whereas in the spinal cord no such space is present (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustrations of where Quincke described the presence of cinnabar deposits along the cranial nerves (A), and spinal cord, nerve roots, peripheral nerves, and brain (B). The illustrations are based on a ‘generic’ humanoid skeleton although the actual experiments were done on dogs, cats, and rabbits. Quincke clearly articulated that the cinnabar was never observed within the brain or peripheral nerve parenchyma. However, he observed cinnabar on the surface of the brain and spinal cord, along intercostal nerves, along lumbar and sacral nerves (B), and always along the optic nerve all the way to “close to the entrance of the optic nerve into the eye” (A).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of ovalbumin-Texas Red (OA555, 1% in aCSF) and cinnabar (10% in aCSF) CSF transport in adult male mice. (A) Fluorescence microscopy of OA555 (left panels) and brightfield (BF) microscopy of cinnabar (right panels) showing the distribution of the two tracers 30 min after injection into the cisterna magna. The brain is visualized from the top and the bottom. (B) Comparison of OA555 and cinnabar distribution in two spinal cord whole-mounts. Two spinal cords displaying the distribution of OA555 are shown in the middle whereas cinnabar is shown on either side, with high-power images of a few cinnabar crystals. (C) Coronal brain sections showing the distribution of OA555 (left panels are counterstained with DAPI) and cinnabar (right panels). Cinnabar did not enter the brain in any of the 7 mice analyzed and the BF images are negative for cinnabar. Scale bars = 2 mm (A), 4 mm (B), and 1 mm (C).
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