Immunoidentification of cellular brain proteins associated with cognitive recovery in brain transplants

In adult, lesion-impaired rat brain receiving embryonic day 15 (E15) fetal transplants, the level of expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) correlates positively with choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) levels and also with measurements of successful behavioural recovery. These results suggest that glial cells may play a pivotal role in the cognitive success of so-called cholinergic-rich transplants. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between GFAP- and ChAT-staining antigens in or around cholinergic-rich fetal grafts transplanted in adult cortex. An immunohistochemical fluorescent double-labelling technique was used to simultaneously identify GFAP- and ChAT-staining cells to assess whether there was a different type or distribution of cells present in these successful transplants. On brain sections of transplant area, GFAP-staining glial cells did not co-label with ChAT-staining cells. The transplant area, therefore, did not reveal a different type of cell from those seen in comparable normal cortical brain but rather a greater concentration of both GFAP- and ChAT-positive staining cells.