Histochemical demonstration of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNPase) in microglial and astroglial cells of adult rat brain.

The histochemical localization of enzymes associated with purine nucleoside metabolism indicates that glial cells might participate in the regulation of these compounds in the central nervous system. In the present study we examined the histochemical localization of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNPase) in sections from adult rat brain. Some sections were also sequentially stained immunocytochemically for astroglial or microglial cells utilizing glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) or OX-42 antibodies, respectively. Our observations showed that PNPase was restricted to glial cells, whereas neurons always remained negative. Brain sections stained for both PNPase and GFAP showed that the GFAP-positive astroglial cells were always PNPase positive. Other PNPase-positive but GFAP-negative cells were also observed. These cells resembled microglial cells, and brain sections reacted for both PNPase and OX-42 confirmed this by showing that the major part of OX-42-positive microglial cells were PNPase positive. In these sections, the PNPase-positive but OX-42-negative cells present resembled astroglial cells. From our double staining experiments, we conclude that PNPase is present in both astroglial and microglial cells in normal adult brain.