[Aspartate aminotransferase of the human cerebellar cortex]

The distribution of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was studied cytochemically in the cerebellar cortex of the man. Granular cell bodies were labeled, but staining was also found in mossy fibre glomerular synapses. In the molecular and Purkinje cell layers, intensive histochemical reaction was concentrated in the climbing fibres and the "basket" terminal plexus around the Purkinje cells pericaryon. Climbing and mossy fibres formed asymmetric synaptic contacts. Localization of AST in neuronal structures of the human cerebellar cortex suggests to consider these as aspartatergic.