Characterization of intermediate filament proteins in astroglia of hamster cerebellum

This investigation was initiated to determine whether the organization of intermediate filament (IF) proteins is affected in the central nervous system of polymyopathic hamsters, as the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene is normally expressed in the nervous system, in addition to cardiac and skeletal muscle, and changes in cell shape and cytoplasmic organization can serve as the regulators of growth, gene expression and cellular differentiation. The cerebellum of dystrophic hamster (CHF 146) was selected as the model system with the CHF 148 hamster providing the control for normal cerebellum. Using immunofluorescence microscopy for IF proteins, no difference could be detected in the cerebellum of dystrophic and normal hamsters. However, the glial fibrillary acidic protein and an IF-associated protein (J1-31 antigen), are lacking in Bergmann glia of the molecular layer. Moreover, vimentin persists in the cerebellum, its presence being most pronounced in a subset of Purkinje neurons in the adult hamster. These results are in contrast to those obtained in the rat cerebellum which has been extensively studied in respect to the organization of IFs.