Ankyrin immunoreactivity in adult rat cerebellum

An antibody recognizing all ankyrin isoforms was employed to localize ankyrin in the cerebellum by light and electron microscopy. White matter (myelinated fiber tracts) did not contain ankyrin. Granule cell bodies and axons contained ankyrin which extended into the parallel fibers and their synapses. Purkinje cells contained a nearly uniform plasma membrane undercoating of ankyrin in the cell body. However, in both of these cell types ankyrin was not detected in dendrites. Basket and stellate cells did not contain detectable ankyrin. Golgi neuroepithelial cell bodies and processes contained ankyrin while myelin and myelinated axons did not. These results indicate that the membrane skeletal protein ankyrin occurs in some, but not all, neuronal and glial cell types in the cerebellum. For the neurons in which it does occur its distribution is polarized, being limited to cell bodies and axons while not occurring in dendrites.