An Intracerebroventricular Injection to Analyze Murine Cytomegalovirus Distribution in a Neonatal Mouse Brain

Take a suspension of murine cytomegalovirus, genetically engineered to express an enhanced green fluorescent protein, allowing for visualization.

Load the suspension into a syringe with an attached needle.

Next, anesthetize a mouse pup by placing it on ice.

Identify the injection site on the pup's head.

Insert the needle perpendicular to the skull surface until it reaches the lateral ventricle, a cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF filled cavity in the brain.

Inject the suspension into the lateral ventricle.

Allow the pup to recover.

The injected virus circulates through the ventricular CSF, reaching the ependymal cells of the marginal area and the epithelial cells of the choroid plexus.

The virus attaches to surface receptors on these cells, internalizes, undergoes replication, and spreads from cell to cell, establishing an acute infection in the choroid plexus, the marginal area, and the subventricular zone.