Brain primary culture — A characterization (part II)

Brain primary cultures from newborn rat hemispheres have been further characterized. THe cultures contained the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAp; alpha-albumin), as analyzed quantitatively. GFAp (alpha-albumin) increased in concentration during growth of cultures and during maturation of the intact rat brain. FITC-labelled antibodies against GFAp (alpha-albumin) reacted specifically with astrocyte-like cells. Theses cells were also positive after Rio-Hortega's silver carbonate staining for astrocytes. No myelin basic protein (MBP) was detected in cultures, neither by quantitative measurements nor by immunofluorescent histochemistry. Negative results were also obtained for the myelin specific enzyme 2', 3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase (CNP), e. e. the enzyme was at the same level in the cultures of different ages as in 3-day-old rat hemispheres. However, in rat brain increasing concentrations of MBP and CNP were found during maturation. This means that no myelin and thereby probably no or few differentiated oligodendroglial cells were present in the cultures, where the predominate cell type was of astroglial nature.