The fate of N-dansyl-L-phenylalanine in the cerebrospinal fluid after intraventricular and intracisternal injection: a comparative fluorescence microscopic and analytical study.

Absorption, accumulation and release of N-Dansyl-L-phenylalanine (DPA) through the ependyma, plexus choriodei and brain parenchyma after intraventricular and intracisternal injection was examined at different postinjection intervals by fluorescence microscopy. The following results were obtained: 1. After intraventricular injection, DPA is rapidly absorbed from the ependyma and plexus choriodei in all ventricles and subsequently disappears from the various points of the ventricles at different times. DPA is no longer evident in the ependyma after 40 min and the plexus after 90 min. Aborption and storage occur primarily in the dopaminergic centers of the brain. This stage begins 5 min p.i. attains a maximum after 40 min and is maintained up to 180 min p.i. 2. If DPA is administered intracisternally, fluorescence is initially restricted to the ependyma and choroid plexus of the fourth ventricle and to the wall of the aquaeduct. Only at 5-10 min p.i. are rostral ventricular portions labelled. Passage of the amino acid out of the ventricle only occurs to a limited extent. 40 min after intracisternal injection, DPA is no longer demonstrable in the ependyma and plexus or brain parenchyma. 3. Intrathecally administered DPA appears in the periglomerular tubules of the kidney as well 2.5 min p.i. and is stored there for up to 40 min. The kidney medulla remains free of fluorescence. 4. DPA injected into the CSF is protein-bound.