[Vimentin and S100 protein in the developing rat dorsal root ganglion cells]

The aim of this research was to study the expression of vimentin, one of the intermediate filament proteins, and S100 protein in the cells of developing dorsal root ganglion in prenatal ontogenesis in Wistar rat embryos (n=22) on 12-19 days of development and in newborn rats (n=6). Immunohistochemical staining methods were used to study the formation of rat dorsal root ganglion glial cells. Vimentin-immunopositive neural and glial progenitor cells were present in dorsal root ganglion primordia in rat embryos at 12-17 prenatal days. At the later stages (day 19 of prenatal life and day 1 of postnatal life) vimentin was found to be synthesized only by the differentiating glial cells. It was shown that at the same time, S100 protein was first detected in the glial cells of rat dorsal root ganglion. On postnatal day 1, the tendency was noted for the accumulation of S100 protein in the larger neurons, that was characteristic to mature dorsal root ganglia.