J. Garciaabreu et al., REGIONALLY SPECIFIC PROPERTIES OF MIDBRAIN GLIA .1. INTERACTIONS WITHMIDBRAIN NEURONS, Journal of neuroscience research, 40(4), 1995, pp. 471-477
Regional astrocyte cultures were obtained by dissecting and dissociati
ng medial and lateral sectors of the midbrain from 14-day Swiss mouse
embryos. Once confluent, these cultures were tested by glial fibrillar
y acidic protein (GFAP) immunocytochemistry to confirm their astrocyte
composition and for 2'-3' cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase (CNPa
se) and microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP(2)) immunocytochemistry
to rule out oligodendroglial and neuronal components, respectively. In
confluent astrocyte cultures from either sector, virtually all cells
were GFAP-positive elements, most of which were flat cells accompanied
by smaller numbers of flat cells with processes. Confluent astrocyte
cultures, derived from medial (M) or lateral (L) sectors, were used as
substrata for culturing dissociated cells from medial (m) or lateral
(l) sectors of 14-day embryonic midbrains. Fixed cocultures (Ll, Lm, M
m, Ml) were stained with an anti-MAP, antibody to verify neuronal aggr
egation and neuritic morphology. In spite of the morphological constan
cy of glia substrata at plating, MAP(2)-positive cells in cocultures s
howed differences in the aggregation of somata and in the length, cali
ber, and branching of neurites. These differences, which depend mostly
on the sector of origin of astrocytes, suggest that the substrata may
differ in adhesiveness and/or growth-promoting vs. growth-interfering
properties. Together with evidence for sectorial heterogeneity in bra
instem radial glia, the present results raise the possibility that cul
tured astrocytes have properties that reflect the roles played by thei
r parent radial glia in the developing brain. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc
.