eLife (Oct 2017)

Human and nonhuman primate meninges harbor lymphatic vessels that can be visualized noninvasively by MRI

  • Martina Absinta,
  • Seung-Kwon Ha,
  • Govind Nair,
  • Pascal Sati,
  • Nicholas J Luciano,
  • Maryknoll Palisoc,
  • Antoine Louveau,
  • Kareem A Zaghloul,
  • Stefania Pittaluga,
  • Jonathan Kipnis,
  • Daniel S Reich

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29738
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

Read online

Here, we report the existence of meningeal lymphatic vessels in human and nonhuman primates (common marmoset monkeys) and the feasibility of noninvasively imaging and mapping them in vivo with high-resolution, clinical MRI. On T2-FLAIR and T1-weighted black-blood imaging, lymphatic vessels enhance with gadobutrol, a gadolinium-based contrast agent with high propensity to extravasate across a permeable capillary endothelial barrier, but not with gadofosveset, a blood-pool contrast agent. The topography of these vessels, running alongside dural venous sinuses, recapitulates the meningeal lymphatic system of rodents. In primates, meningeal lymphatics display a typical panel of lymphatic endothelial markers by immunohistochemistry. This discovery holds promise for better understanding the normal physiology of lymphatic drainage from the central nervous system and potential aberrations in neurological diseases.

Keywords