A murine model of communicating hydrocephalus: Role of TGF-beta1.

Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) often causes communicating hydrocephalus. We recently found that intrathecal injection of human recombinant transforming growth factor (hrTGF)-beta1 induced communicating hydrocephalus in mice. In this experiment we examined whether hydrocephalus could be generated in mice by intrathecal injection of autologous serum, which would contain TGF-beta1 in a similar situation to SAH. Mouse serum, plasma and a range of quantities of hrTGF-beta1 were injected intrathecally into 10 day old C57BL/6 mice. The sizes of the lateral ventricles were measured some weeks after injection. The serum induced hydrocephalus which was prevented by additional injection of anti-TGF-beta1 antibody. Immunoblot analysis showed a band of the active form of TGF-beta1 in the serum which was not detected in the plasma. This study therefore suggests that active TGF-beta1 in cerebrospinal fluid after SAH contributes to the generation of communicating hydrocephalus.