Fate of Cerebrospinal Fluid-Borne Amyloid β-Peptide: Rapid Clearance into Blood and Appreciable Accumulation by Cerebral Arteries

In Alzheimer's disease, the neuritic or senile amyloid plaques in hippocampus and association cortex, the diffuse plaques in brain areas such as the cerebellum and sensorimotor cortex, and the amyloid deposits in the walls of pial and parenchymal blood vessels are mainly composed of amyloid β-peptides. In the present study, either soluble 40-residue amyloid β-peptide radiolabeled with 125 I (I-sAβ) or [ 14 C]polyethylene glycol ([ 14 C]-PEG, a reference material) was briefly infused into one lateral ventricle of normal rats. By 3.5 min, 30% of the 1-sAfl was cleared from ventricular CSF into blood ; another 30% was removed over the next 6.5 min. No [ 14 C]PEG was lost from the CSF-brain system during the first 5 min, and only 20% was cleared by 10 min. Much of the I-sAβ that reached the subarachnoid space was retained by pial arteries and arterioles. Virtually no I-sAβ was found in brain. The clearance of amyloid β-peptides from the CSF-brain system, reported herein for normal rats, may be reduced in Alzheimer's disease, thus contributing to amyloid deposition in cerebral tissue and blood vessels.