Ependymal Cell

A glia cell type of the human nervous system.

Multiciliated ventricular lining cell that helps move cerebrospinal fluid; ciliary dysfunction can contribute to hydrocephalus.

Function

Ciliated ventricular-lining cells that help move CSF and form part of the brain-CSF interface. (Ependyma lacks tight junctions and is a permeable CSF-brain interface, not the principal blood-CSF barrier - that is the choroid plexus epithelium.)

Morphology

Cuboidal to columnar; multiciliated apical surface

Specification

  • Receptors: Purinergic
  • Location: Ventricular system (lining of brain ventricles, aqueduct, and central canal)
  • Projections: Apical multicilia projecting into the ventricular lumen
  • Firing: Non-spiking
  • Markers: FOXJ1 (core multiciliated marker); VIM/vimentin; S100B; TPPP3; RFX2/RFX3; CD24; acetylated tubulin (cilia)
  • Developmental origin: Neural tube; derived from radial glia (FOXJ1-driven)
  • Disease: Hydrocephalus (ependymal/ciliary dysfunction; now viewed as contributory rather than sole cause)
  • Cell Ontology: CL:0000065

References

  1. Groh AMR, Hodgson L, Bzdok D, & Stratton JA (2025). Follow the CSF flow: probing multiciliated ependymal cells in brain pathology.. Trends in molecular medicine 31 PMID 39516174
  2. Duy PQ, Greenberg ABW, Butler WE, & Kahle KT (2022). Rethinking the cilia hypothesis of hydrocephalus.. Neurobiology of disease 175 PMID 36341771
  3. MacAulay N, Keep RF, & Zeuthen T (2022). Cerebrospinal fluid production by the choroid plexus: a century of barrier research revisited.. Fluids and barriers of the CNS 19 PMID 35317823

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