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Preferential histochemical staining of protoplasmic and fibrous astrocytes in rat CNS with GFAP antibodies using
S A Shehab1, J R Cronly-Dillon, S N Nona
1Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, UMIST, Manchester, U.K.
Abstract:
Serial sections of rat brain and spinal cord were fixed in either acid-alcohol or 4% paraformaldehyde, and stained for visualization of astrocytes using GFAP antibodies. With paraformaldehyde, GFAP-positive astrocytes were visualised almost exclusively in the grey matter of all above tissues. In sharp contrast, acid-alcohol treatment gave intensely stained GFAP-containing astrocytes in the white matter. Since fibrous astrocytes are mainly located in the white matter and protoplasmic astrocytes are located in the grey matter, it is concluded that acid-alcohol is a good fixative for fibrous astrocytes while paraformaldehyde is a better fixative for protoplasmic astrocytes.