Vimentin in ependymal and subventricular proliferative zone cells of rat telencephalon.

Ependymal cells of cerebral ventricles are the most probable candidate progenitor cells. We studied ependymal and subventricular zone cells expressing intermediate filament protein vimentin. The results suggest that the ventricular ependyma represent a homogenous cell population. Some ependymocytes have long processes contacting with blood vessels, which makes them similar to tanycytes of the third cerebral ventricle. New data on the structure of ependymocyte processes attest to their active involvement into creation of a special microenvironment for neural stem cells of the subventricular proliferative zone.