Transplantation of glial cell progenitors from brains of normal rats and mice into brains of neonatal carbonic anhydrase II-deficient mutant mice.

Carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) is expressed in oligodendrocytes, astrocytes and myelin in brains of rats and normal mice, but not in the brains of CAII-deficient mutant mice. We have transplanted mixed glial-cell suspensions from normal mouse brains, and oligodendrocyte-enriched precursor cells cultured from normal rat brains, respectively, into the brains of neonatal CAII-deficient mutant mice. Some CAII-positive astrocytes and oligodendrocytes developed in the brains of the host CAII-deficient mice at 8, 14 and 18 days posttransplant (DPT). In transplants of either mixed glial cells or oligodendrocyte precursors, CAII-positive oligodendrocytes were less plentiful than CAII-positive astrocytes and appeared to be less healthy. CAII-positive astrocytes developed by 8 DPT, and there were some oligodendrocytes in cerebral cortex at 14 DPT and in brainstem by 18 DPT. The data suggested that if glial-cell progenitors were to be injected into demyelinated lesions, any oligodendrocytes descended from the donor would be accompanied by astrocytes also descended from donor cells.