Intraventricular clindamycin enhances interstitial brain fluid drainage and the blood-brain barrier after a traumatic brain injury.

Intracerebroventricular clindamycin in murine traumatic brain injury increases ependymal cilia motility by 30 to 60%, linked to improved interstitial brain fluid drainage.

• Why it matters: Secondary pathogenesis after severe TBI remains difficult to treat, motivating interventions that can reduce injury-derived damage and restore brain homeostasis.
• What they did: In focal and diffuse mouse TBI models, I.C.V. clindamycin increased ependymal cilia motility by 30 to 60%, correlating with cortical interstitial brain fluid drainage (r > 0.9 Pearson, n = 4 compounds tested).
• The result: Post-TBI I.C.V. clindamycin restored the blood-brain barrier, decreased lesion size, and lowered serum glial fibrillary acidic protein by 2.8-fold, improving recognition memory in brain-injured mice.