Assembly of glial intermediate filament protein is initiated in the centriolar region

Assembly of glial intermediate filament protein (GFP) into intermediate filaments (IF) was first detected by immunofluorescence in the perinuclear region of astrocytes differentiating in colony cultures before the rest of the cytoplasm was labeled. Double labeling with antisera specific for centrioles indicated that this site corresponds to the centriolar region. These studies suggest that the centriolar region plays an important role in the assembly of some types of IF as well as microtubules.