A comparison of the proliferative activity of astrocytes and astrocyte-like cells expressing vimentin in the injured mouse cerebral hemisphere.

After an unilateral injury of the cerebral hemisphere, 28 nice were injected with 3H thymidine at different intervals following the injury. Thereafter, the distribution of autographically labelled astrocytes expressing glial fibrillary protein (GFAP) and astrocyte-like cells expressing vimentin were recorded within the region of injury. Proliferative activity of the two cell types started at the same time, i.e. 24 h. after injury, reached its maximum on day 4, and returned to normal level after the 8th posttraumatic day. However, on day 4 the number of proliferating GFAP-positive astrocytes was about 50% higher than that of vimentin-positive cells. This was regarded as a proof of the concept that a significant number of astrocytes did not express vimentin during its mitotic cycle. Those facts were considered as an evidence against the hypothesis that a reactive astrocyte division induces a two-stage increase in the cytoskeletal proteins level with the elevated synthesis of vimentin preceding that of GFAP.