EX-VIVO CULTURE OF ADULT MICROGLIAL CELLS FROM PREVIOUSLY LESIONED RAT BRAINS

In an attempt to study more precisely the glial cells involved in reac tions following specific brain injuries, we tried to culture cells der ived from surgically-lesioned rat brains or adult rat hippocampus prev iously treated with kainic acid, a convulsant which induces status epi lepticus associated with structural modifications. We find that, contr ary to cultures derived from normal adult rat brain, cultures from les ioned rat brains can survive and proliferate in vitro. Characterizatio n of the cell types using double labeling with isolectin B4 for microg lia and GFAP antisera for astrocytes shows that cultures from KA-treat ed adult rats consist of nearly 100 % macrophagic-microglial cells, wh ereas those obtained from surgically-lesioned brains are composed of a mixed population of microglial cells and astrocytes. These models are proposed as suitable for the further study of microglial-neuronal int eractions involved in brain damage and repair.