Intracerebroventricular infusions of TNF-alpha preferentially recruit blood lymphocytes and induce a perivascular leukocyte infiltrate.

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is important in several central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory diseases, however, its role in the recruitment of leukocytes into the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and CNS is incompletely understood. Therefore, we examined the effect of intracerebroventricular (icv) and parenchymal infusions of TNF-alpha on the type of leukocyte, the pool and subset of lymphocytes recruited into CSF and brain parenchyma. Parenchymal injections of 500 ng of recombinant human TNF-alpha did not induce inflammation, whereas an icv infusion of TNF-alpha caused CSF leuckocytosis and a perivascular infiltrate. Twenty-four hours after the icv infusion neutrophils predominated, with CD4+ T cells being the major lymphocyte subset in CSF. By 48 h lymphocytes were the dominant cell type with CD8+ cells surpassing CD4+ cells in both the CSF and the perivascular infiltrate. The labeled recirculating lymphocyte pool prevailed in normal CSF, but after the infusion of TNF-alpha, the blood pool of lymphocytes was preferentially recruited. These results have implications for the immune surveillance of the CNS.