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Updated: Aug 8, 2026
Isolation and Culture of Mouse Cortical Astrocytes
Published on: January 19, 2013
CD44 expression in human astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in culture
1Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Insights
CD44 glycoprotein is found on human glial cells, including astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, but not fetal neurons. This suggests CD44 plays a role in neuroglia-mediated cell adhesion and recognition.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cell Biology
- Immunology
Background:
- CD44 is a cell surface glycoprotein involved in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions.
- Its expression and function in human neural cell types are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the expression of CD44 antigen in primary human neural cell cultures from fetal and adult brains.
- To determine the specific neural cell types that express CD44.
Main Methods:
- Double immunofluorescence staining of primary neural cell cultures.
- Western blot analysis of astrocyte- and neuron-enriched cultures.
Main Results:
- CD44 antigen was expressed on approximately 80% of fetal astrocytes and over 95% of adult astrocytes.
- CD44 was detected in 50-60% of adult oligodendrocytes but not in fetal neurons.
- Western blot confirmed CD44 presence in astrocyte-enriched cultures (approx. 80 kD polypeptide) but not in neuron-enriched cultures.
Conclusions:
- CD44 glycoprotein is constitutively expressed in human glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes).
- CD44's role is likely associated with normal neuroglia-mediated adhesion and recognition processes.
Abstract:
CD44 is a glycoprotein present on the surface of some lymphocyte cell populations and other non-lymphoid cells, and is involved in many functions related to cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. In this study, expression of CD44 antigen in primary neural cell cultures derived from fetal and adult human brains was investigated. In cultures processed for double immunofluorescence staining, approximately 80% of fetal astrocytes and more than 95% of adult astrocytes expressed the CD44 antigen on the cell bodies and processes; CD44 was also detected in 50-60% of adult oligodendrocytes. Neurons in fetal brain cell cultures did not express CD44 at all. Western blot analysis performed in astrocyte- and in neuron-enriched cultures confirmed the results from immunostaining and showed that the antibody against CD44 reacted with a polypeptide, of approximately 80 kD, that is present exclusively in the astrocyte-enriched cultures, but absent in neuron-enriched cultures. Our results indicate that CD44 glycoprotein is constitutively expressed in the human cells of glial cell lineage and its role is likely to be associated with normal neuroglia-mediated adhesion/recognition processes.
