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Absence of Blood-Brain Barrier in a Crustacean, Carcinus maenas L.

Nature volume 225, pages 291–293 (1970)Cite this article

Abstract

THE term “blood-brain barrier” is used to explain the observed selective impermeability of vertebrate brain compared with other tissues. Passive features of this impermeability are attributable to the specialized cerebral capillary endothelium and choroid epithelium1. The invertebrates so far studied seem not to have a cellular barrier, although brain extracellular regulation may be possible in some species2. But all the invertebrates previously investigated have no intracerebral blood supply, and so because the blood-brain diffusion paths are almost always greater than in vertebrates, the systems are scarcely comparable.

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References

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Author notes

  1. JOAN ABBOTT

    Present address: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Medical Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 27706

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge,

    JOAN ABBOTT

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  1. JOAN ABBOTT
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ABBOTT, J. Absence of Blood-Brain Barrier in a Crustacean, Carcinus maenas L.. Nature 225, 291–293 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/225291b0

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