Ventriculomegaly In Aging, Injury And Disease

The brain’s ventricular system provides essential functions to the central nervous system, which include nutrient and signal delivery, waste clearance, and homeostatic regulation of critical factors, and waste clearance. It is therefore surprising that most studies neglect to consider the ventricular system and its ependymal lining in the etiology of neurodegenerative disease. Here, we investigate changes that occur to the brain in aging, injury and disease from the perspective of the ventricular system, its ependymal lining and surrounding periventricular structures. Using a combination of post-mortem human tissue, neuro-imaging and mouse models, our studies highlight the importance of maintaining a healthy ependymal lining in aging, and reveal periventricular areas of the brain that are likely vulnerable to acceleration and rotational forces in mild traumatic brain injury. Assessment of new protocols for three-dimensional visualization of whole tissue samples are included to promote future research of intact biological structures. Together, these studies emphasize the ventricular system as an important central nervous system feature that should be considered in the pursuit of understanding neurophysiological mechanisms underlying changes that occur to the brain in aging, head trauma and neurodegenerative disease.