Intracerebral injection of proinflammatory cytokines or leukocyte chemotaxins induces minimal myelomonocytic cell recruitment to the parenchyma of the central nervous system.

Neither excitotoxic neurodegeneration nor lipopolysaccharide induces an acute myelomonocytic exudate in the murine central nervous system (CNS) parenchyma (Andersson, P.-B., V. H. Perry, and S. Gordon. 1991. Neuroscience, 42:201; Andersson, P.-B., V. H. Perry, and S. Gordon. 1992. Neuroscience 48:169). In this study formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine, platelet-activating factor, interleukin 8 (IL-8), IL-1, or tumor necrosis factor alpha were injected into the hippocampus to assess whether these leukocyte chemotaxins and known mediators of recruitment could bypass this block. They induced morphologic activation of microglia and widespread leukocyte margination but little or no cell exudation into the CNS parenchyma. By contrast, there was acute myelomonocytic cell recruitment to the choroid plexus, meninges, and ventricular system, comparable to that in the skin after subcutaneous injection. The normal CNS parenchyma appears to be a tissue unique in its resistance to leukocyte diapedesis, which is shown here to be at a step beyond chemotactic cytokine secretion or induction of leukocyte adhesion to cerebral endothelium.