[Morphological manifestations of astrocyte local functional activation produced by a short-term total brain ischemia]

The goal of this work was to study changes structural and cytochemical organization of rat hippocampus activated astrocytes after a brief total brain ischemia. By methods of immunocytochemical determination of proteins of intermediate filaments, in was established that 7 days after the ischemia the functional activation of dorsal hippocampus astrocytes is morphologically manifested both as changes of size and shape of the cells and their processes and as accumulation of the intermediate filament proteins -GFAP and nestin. Two populations of the activated astrocytes are formed - more dispersed GFAP-positive astrocytes and nestin-positive astrocytes located predominantly in the area of massive death of nerve cells. The obtained data allow suggesting that the postischemic activation of astrocytes is accompanied by their acquistition of properties characteristic of immature cells of the nervous tissue; however, the absence of morphological signs of dedifferentiation does not permit these cells to be considered responsible for reparational neurogenesis in hippocampus.