The glial blood-brain barrier of crustacea and cephalopods: a review

Abstract

1. The glial blood-brain barrier of invertebrates is an accessible, polarised glial layer that permits study of glial cells in their normal relations with neurons. Crayfish 2. The glial "perineurium" forms the blood-brain interface in crayfish, and acts as a barrier to horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and ionic lanthanum. By contrast, the perineurium of the peripheral nervous system is relatively permeable. 3. The ionic permeability of the blood-brain interface can be studied in a sucrose gap chamber, using an extra-cellular microelectrode to monitor the potential across the perineurium following changes in the bathing medium. Subtraction of the microelectrode trace from the sucrose gap records gives the change in the axonal membrane potential. 4. Raised [K+] in the bath causes a complex change in perineurial potential, with the initial transient indicating that the outer (basal) glial membrane is highly K+ selective. The axonal response shows that the time constant for K+ uptake (tau u) and efflux (tau E) across the perineurium of the order of 3-4 min, but the interstitial [K+] in the steady state, [K+] infinity is always less than in the bathing medium. The results are explained by a model incorporating a K+ sink, which may be glial. 5. Strophanthidin and ethacrynic acid have little effect on tau u or K infinity, but cause a rise of tau E. Cold temperature pulses causes changes in the perineurial potential compatible with depolarisation of the inner (apical) membrane. A model is proposed with a Na+-K+-2 Cl co-transporter on the perineurial basal membrane, and an electrogenic Na+-K+-ATPase on the apical.membrane, consistent with results from vertebrate glial/ependymal epithelia. Cephalopods 6. The brain of the cuttlefish Sepia has an extensive system of microvessels. In the vertical and optic lobes studied, a perivascular glial layer forms a barrier to HRP. The occluding structure appears not to be a classical tight junction but may involve condensation of extracellular material. There is no barrier between retinal axons and blood. 7. Studies with radiolabelled polyethylene glycol (PEG4000) and EDTA show that the Sepia blood-brain barrier is as tight as the endothelial barrier of mammals. 8. A modification of the Oldendorf arterial injection technique is used to show that glucose transport at the Sepia barrier is mediated by a Na+-independent hexose carrier resembling that of mammalian red cells and blood-brain barrier. 9. The blood-axon interface fo mantle nerves in the squid Alloteuthis is relatively impermeable to small ions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)