GFAP-positive astrocytes are rare or absent in primary adult human brain tissue cultures |
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Authors: | Ivana Macikova Anna Perzelova Peter Mraz Ivan Bizik and Juraj Steno |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Sasinkova 2, SK-81372 Bratislava, Slovakia;(2) Department of Neurosurgery, Derer’s Hospital, Bratislava, Slovakia |
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Abstract: | Traditionally, astrocytes are divided into fibrous and protoplasmic types based on their morphologic appearance. Here the
cultures were prepared separately from the adult human cortical gray and white matter of brain biopsies. Both cultures differed
only in the number of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive cells. In the gray matter these were absent or rare,
whereas in confluent cultures from the white matter they reached 0.1% of all cells. Three main morphologic types of GFAP-positive
cells were found in this study: stellate, bipolar and large flat cells. GFAP-positive cells with two or three long processes
mimic a neuron-like morphology. We did not find process-bearing cells expressing neuronal markers (MAP-2, NF, and N-CAM).
The conflicting reports concerning GFAP immunostaining and the study dealing with the presence of putative neurons in adult
human brain cultures are discussed with respect to these findings. The latter classification of astrocytes into type 1 and
type 2 is based on immunostaining to A2B5 antigen: type 1 (GFAP+/A2B5−) and type 2 (GFAP+/A2B5+) astrocytes are proposed to
be analogous to protoplasmic and fibrous astrocytes, respectively. In adult human brain cultures we found only small amount
of A2B5-positive cells. Double immunofluorescence revealed that astroglial cells of similar fibrous or bipolar shape grown
on one coverslip were either GFAP+/A2B5+ or GFAP+/A2B5−. On the other hand, the A2B5+/GFAP− immunophenotype was not observed.
These results indicate that in general the cell phenotype from adult human brain tissue is not well established when they
are in culture. |
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Keywords: | adult human astrocytes neuronal markers GFAP A2B5 antigen O4 antigen GalC antigen |
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