Brain macrophages in rats following intravenous labelling of mononuclear leucocytes with colloidal carbon.

Intravenous injections of colloidal carbon were used to label circulating mononuclear leucocytes. In the neonatal rats (3-5 days old), either 24 or 48 hours later, carbon-labelled macrophages were seen in the brain tissue. In the areas examined, notably the corpus callosum and the cerebral cortex, labelled macrophages were distributed randomly. They were either perivascular, perineuronal or lay between the nerve fibres. The labelled cells were mostly spindle-shaped with an eccentric nucleus and the cytoplasm at one pole of the cell was engorged with dark carbon particles. Abundant labelled cells were also seen over the brain surface in the layers of meninges. There was no evidence of leucocytic infiltration into the brain tissue of mature animals. It is concluded from the present work that a proportion (but not all) of the macrophages in the neonatal rat brain are derived from the blood stream.