Leucine-rich repeat containing 8A contributes to the expansion of brain ventricles in zebrafish embryos.

The sodium osmotic gradient is necessary for the initiation of brain ventricle inflation, but a previous study predicted that organic and inorganic osmolytes play equivalently important roles in osmotic homeostasis in astrocytes. To test whether organic osmoregulation also plays a role in brain ventricle inflation, the core component for volume-regulated anion and organic osmolyte channel, , was investigated in the zebrafish model. RT-PCR and whole-mount hybridization indicated that both genes were ubiquitously expressed through to 12 hpf, and around the ventricular layer of neural tubes and the cardiogenic region at 24 hpf.