Enzymatic and morphological properties of primary rat brain astrocyte cultures, and enzyme development in vivo.

The development of (Na+ + K+) ATPase, carbonic anhydrase and HCO3--stimulated ATPase activity was studied in developing rat brain in vivo, and in primary astrocyte cultures from 1--3-day-old rat brain as a function of increasing cell growth. The primary cultures showed an increase in all the above enzyme activities during cell growth, with time courses which were qualitatively similar to their development in vivo. Cell cultures grown separately from the cerebellum plus brain stem regions showed greater carbonic anhydrase activity than cerebral cultures over the entire 4-week growth period, corresponding to development of this activity in these same regions in vivo, HCO3-stimulated ATPase activity was slightly greater in cerebellar cultures and (Na+ + K+) ATPase activity was greater in cerebral cultures up to the second week of growth, resembling development of the same enzyme activities in vivo. C6 glioma and neuroblastoma cells showed no and 10-fold lower carbonic anhydrase activities respectively, compared to the primary astrocyte cultures. Addition of 1 mM N6-2'-O-dibutyryladenosine-3',5'-monophosphate (DBcAMP) in the presence of serum caused marked formation of cellular processes and increased carbonic anhydrase and (Na+ + K+) ATPase activity. Maximum effects were found 2 h after addition of 1 mM DBcAMP and thereafter declined. In the absence of serum such effects persisted for at least 24 h. Electron microscope studies showed large numbers of microtubule (approximately 20 nm diameter) and filamentous structures (less than or equal to 10 nm diameter) in the cytoplasm, which showed changes in distribution in cells treated with DBcAMP. This study suggests that the increase in ATPase and carbonic anhydrase activities in rat brain with increasing age may be in part a reflection of proliferation and development of astroglia cells. Together with the morphological data, it also provides additional evidence that primary cultures derived from neonatal rats may closely resemble developing astroglia in vivo.