An immediate morphopathologic response of a subpopulation of astrocytes to electroshock: "dark" astrocytes

Varying numbers of astrocytes lining the subarachnoid and Virchow-Robin's spaces become stainable by a special silver method in brain sections of rats subjected to a single electroshock of "suitable" parameters immediately before being sacrificed by perfusion fixation. This type of argyrophilia is considered to be induced by some electrically caused morphological damage, since the affected astrocytes are dramatically shrunken and hyperchromatic at both light- and electron-microscopic levels. Based on several points of morphopathologic similarity between the electroshock-damaged astrocytes and "dark" cells of various tissues, especially electroshock-induced "dark" neurons, it is supposed that their nature is also similar ("dark" astrocytes).