RAT STRIATAL ASTROGLIA INDUCE MORPHOLOGICAL AND NEUROCHEMICAL CHANGESIN ADULT BOVINE, ADRENERGIC-ENRICHED ADRENAL CHROMAFFIN CELLS IN-VITRO

Adult bovine chromaffin cells are generally resistant to plastic chang es when exposed to various culture media. Here, we demonstrate that ad renergic-enriched bovine chromaffin cell populations show significant process extension when co-cultured with fetal rat brain glial fibrilla ry acid protein (GFAP)+, fibronectin astroglia. Basal medium was ineff ective in promoting such growth in chromaffin cells. Initial process f ormation could be observed about 24 h after seeding, while well develo ped processes were seen after 3-4 days. Intimate contacts of cytoplasm ic extensions with adrenergic chromaffin cells, or with astroglial cel ls, were frequently observed. Both co-culture with glial cells or expo sure to glia-conditioned medium led to a significant increase in norad renaline and adrenaline, but not in dopamine content. Since bovine chr omaffin cells are widely used as models to study fundamental mechanism s of neurosecretion and phenotype transformation, their co-culture wit h astroglia may provide a useful strategy to study such phenomena.