The fine structure of nerve fibers and endings in the lateral cerebral ventricles of the rat

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Abstract
The brains of adult rats were fixed by vascular perfusion with glutaraldehyde. Tissue blocks were cut from the walls in the anterior horn of the lateral ventricles. The blocks were impregnated with uranyl magnesium acetate and embedded in Vestopal. Numerous nerve fibers lay supraependymally, singly or in groups, between the microvilli and cilia of the ependymal cells. Varicosities occurred along the fiber, often in close succession. The intraventricular nerve endings were flask‐shaped. Vesicles were present in the cytoplasm of the nerve processes, varying considerably in shape, size and content. They were round or flattened. Some contained a dense core, whilst others were more or less empty. A zonula adhaerens was sometimes observed between a nerve ending and the luminal plasma membrane of an ependymal cell.The present study and other studies are compatible with the concept that the intraventricular nerve processes are receptors, possibly registering the composition of the cerebrospinal fluid. A further possibility is that the nerve processes give off a secretion to the cerebrospinal fluid.