Immunocytochemical staining of astrocytes, tanycytes, immature glial cells and ependymal cells in the central nervous system of the normal rat and the myelin-deficient mutant.

Central nervous system (CNS) tissue from young myelin-deficient (md) mutant rats and male littermate controls was immunostained with antibodies against the following glial-cell antigens: glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), glutamine synthetase, vimentin, the Yb isozyme of glutathione-S-transferase (Yb) and carbonic anhydrase. Gliosis was most severe in spinal-cord 'white-matter' tracts in the md rat. The most dramatic differences between astrocytes in the md and normal animals were revealed with anti-GFAP and anti-vimentin. Ependymal cells and tanycytes were quite similar in the md and normal CNS. Among the glial-cell antigens, Yb showed the broadest distribution, which included astrocytes, ependymal cells and tanycytes.