Pia mater
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| Pia mater | |
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| Diagrammatic transverse section of the medulla spinalis and its membranes. (At border, dura mater is black line, arachnoid mater is blue line, and pia mater is red line.) | |
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| The medulla spinalis and its membranes. | |
| Gray's | subject #193 878 |
| MeSH | Pia+Mater |
The pia mater (Latin: "tender mother", itself a translation from Arabic) is the delicate innermost layer of the meninges - the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
The thin, mesh-like pia mater closely envelops the entire surface of the brain, running down into the fissures of the cortex. It joins with the ependyma which lines the ventricles to form choroid plexuses that produce cerebrospinal fluid.
In the spinal cord, the Pia mater attaches to the Dura mater by the denticular ligaments through the arachnoid membrane.
The pia mater is a neural crest derivative.
Additional images
 Meninges of the CNS |
 Median sagittal section of brain. |
 Coronal section of inferior horn of lateral ventricle. |
 Diagrammatic representation of a section across the top of the skull, showing the membranes of the brain, etc. |
 Diagrammatic section of scalp. |
Anatomy: meninges of the brain and medulla spinalis | |
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| Layers | Dura mater (Falx cerebri, Tentorium cerebelli, Falx cerebelli, Diaphragma sellae) Pia mater |
| Spaces | Epidural space - Subdural space - Subarachnoid space (Cerebrospinal fluid) |
| Subarachnoid cisterns | Cisterna magna - Pontine cistern - Interpeduncular cistern - Chiasmatic - Lateral cerebral fossa - Of great cerebral vein |
