Medical expert of the article
New publications
Development of the cerebrospinal fluid system
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
The nervous system initially develops as a hollow tube containing an amniotic fluid. The liquor system develops simultaneously with the formation of the actual nerve tissue.
The vascular plexus begins to form around the 2nd month of embryonic development. Vascular plexuses are laid in a certain sequence - first in the third and fourth ventricles, then in the lateral ones. This reflects the needs of the first developing stem structures, and then the cerebral hemispheres.
The vascular plexuses of all the ventricles develop by turning inside a part of the walls of the brain bubbles, which is due to the faster growth of certain cells.
Up to 5 months of embryonic life, the brain cavities, which are the remains of the cavities of the cerebral blisters, represent a closed system in which the liquor produced by the wreaths causes the expansion of the ventricles - the stage of the physiological intubation of hydrocephalus. Likvor impregnates the brain tissue as a "sponge", washing the elements of the parenchyma and glia. These movements of the cerebrospinal fluid are the first arising rhythm of the brain, which ensures its development.
In this period, middle fluid cavities are well expressed, which increase the area of contact between the cerebrospinal fluid and the brain: the cavity of the transparent septum and the Vergé cavity. These cavities are bounded from above by a corpus callosum body, and from below by two arches of forticles. The point where the forks converge, delineates the cavity of the transparent partition and the cavity of the Vergé from each other, which are freely communicating with each other. The Vergé cavity begins to close in utero around the 6th month of gestation. Closure is coming from behind in advance, and at the time of birth or during the first two months of life, the cavity of the transparent septum also closes.
Features of secreted cerebrospinal fluid in the early stages of development of the human brain are an extremely high concentration of amino acids and protein substances in it, approximately 20 times higher than that of adults, and a high glucose content.
By the 6th month of intrauterine development in the area of the fourth ventricle, there are three holes: the middle hole of the Magendi and the two lateral holes of Lushka. These openings connect the system of the ventricular cavities with the subarachnoid space, the liquor entering there splits the soft membrane into two sheets and begins to circulate along the subarachnoid spaces of the convection. At this time pachyon granulations are laid and the resorptive apparatus of the brain begins to develop, but it is completely formed by the age of one year.
About the 7th month of intrauterine life, the brain nutrition becomes liquor-capillary, and to the birth - mainly capillary.
In a newborn child of the first days of life, the amount of CSF in the subarachnoid spaces and ventricles is 40-60 ml. In adults, 90-200 ml. The development of cerebrospinal fluid is 0.37 ml per minute and does not depend on the age of people. In adults, the cerebrospinal fluid is renewed 4-5 times a day.