Fluoro Jade stains early and reactive astroglia in the primate cerebral cortex.

The fluorescent agent Fluoro Jade was applied to cortical brain sections obtained from human patients at early postnatal ages and in patients with Alzheimer's disease, and from a Cebus apella monkey after mechanical lesioning of the cerebral cortex. Fluoro Jade labeled reactive astrocytes and early differentiating astroglial cells.

Disruption of astroglial interlaminar processes in Alzheimer's disease.

A palisade of long, interlaminar astroglial processes in supragranular layers of the cerebral cortex is characteristic of adult individuals of anthropoid species. In the present study, this distinctive cytoarchitectonic feature was analyzed in tissue deriving from the neocortex of cases affected by Alzheimer's disease (n=14) and age-matched control cases (n=10). Samples of different cortical areas, and in particular prefrontal, temporal and striate fields, were analyzed.

Reduced whole-body fat oxidation in women and in the elderly.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that the increase in fat mass observed with aging might be related to a decrease in whole-body fat oxidation.

Subjects And Measurements: Forty volunteers had measurements of sleeping and 24 h substrate oxidation in calorimetric chambers, body composition with the (18)O dilution technique, VO(2)max, and fiber composition analysis from a biopsy of vastus lateralis. They were divided into 10 young women, 10 young men, 10 elderly women and 10 elderly men.

"Rodent-like" and "primate-like" types of astroglial architecture in the adult cerebral cortex of mammals: a comparative study.

Previous observations disclosed that astroglia with interlaminar processes were present in the cerebral cortex of adult New and Old World monkeys, but not in the rat, and scarcely in the prosimian Microcebus murinus. The present report is a more systematic and comprehensive comparative analysis of the occurrence of such processes in the cerebral cortex of several mammalian species. Brain samples were obtained from adult individuals from the following orders: Carnivora (canine), Rodentia (rat and mouse), Marsupialia (Macropus eugenii), Artiodactyl (bovine and ovine), Scandentia (Tupaia glis), Chiroptera (Cynopteris horsfieldii and C.

Postnatal development of interlaminar astroglial processes in the cerebral cortex of primates.

Unlabelled: Long astroglial processes traversing several cortical laminae appear to be characteristic of primate brains. Whether interlaminar processes develop as a modification of radial glia or are truly postnatal elements stemming from stellate astroglia, could be assessed by analyzing their early developmental stages. A survey of glial fibrillar acidic protein immunoreactive (GFAP-IR) astroglial interlaminar processes in the cerebral cortex of Ceboidea monkeys at various postnatal developmental ages, and in human cortical samples of a ten day and a seven year old child disclosed that such processes develop postnatally.

Long, interlaminar astroglial cell processes in the cortex of adult monkeys.

At variance with current descriptions stressing the stellate geometry of cortical astrocytes in the brain of adult mammals, GFAP-immunoreactive astrocytes from prefrontal and rostral cingulate cortices in two adult New World monkey species, Cebus apella and Saimiri sciureus, were found to have long cellular processes traversing several cortical lamina. These unreported features of cortical astroglial cells in adult nonhuman primates pose new issues for the understanding of iso- and allocortical organization and processing in higher mammals.

Cortical astroglial conditioned medium induces in vitro radial-like forms.

Cerebral cortex and striatal cell dissociates obtained from rat fetuses (E 17) were subcultured and enriched in astroglial cells before being grown in regional (cerebral cortex, striatum) astroglial conditioned media (CM) or defined basal medium. Incidence of radial-like astroglia (vimentin+ or glial fibrillary acid protein, GFAP+) and length of processes in cortical cell subcultures showed a greater increase when exposed to cerebral cortex CM than to striatal CM or basal medium. Stellate (GFAP+) forms prevailed in subcultures grown in basal medium while striatal cells exposed to CM of either origin remained undifferentiated.

Leptomeningeal and skin fibroblasts: two different cell types?

Leptomeningeal and skin fetal (E16-17) fibroblasts were subcultured in vitro either in DMEM/F12 basal medium (with or without 10% FCS) or in astroglial conditioned medium (ACM). Both populations were characteristically composed of flat, undifferentiated, fibronectin(+), GFAP(-)cells where cultured in fetal serum supplemented basal media. When exposed to ACM leptomeningeal cells developed a population of thin, elongated, fibronectin(+) cells with radial type long processes while skin fibroblasts did not show significant changes in their characteristic morphotype.

Trophic influences of human and rat amniotic fluid on neural tube-derived rat fetal cells.

Normal human (week 17-20) and rat (E16-17) amniotic fluids were used as culture media for primary cultures of rat fetal (E 16) cortical, mesencephalic and striatal cell dissociates, or astroglial subcultures from the same brain regions. Phase-bright and dark cells were identified under phase contrast microscopy and their cell processes were measured utilizing semi-automated procedures. Subcultured astroglia were immuno-reacted against glial fibrillary acidic protein and fibronectin.