[Astrocytic proliferation in the brain adjacent to infarcted lesion: immunohistochemical study of astroprotein (GFAP) and bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)].

Although cerebral infarction is a destructive process of nerve cells and brain tissue, the nature is not exclusively disintegrating but also includes active cellular reaction which may modify the progression of tissue damage. Most prominent cellular reaction in the area surrounding infarction can be recognized as a trophic or proliferative change of glial cells. In the present study we produced a focal cerebral ischemia in Mongolian gerbils and investigated the dynamic change of astrocytes in the brain adjacent to thalamic infarction. Using immunohistochemical methods, astrocytes were identified with the antibody to astroprotein (GFAP) and the DNA synthesizing (S phase) cells were detected with the antibody to bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). The posterior communicating artery of a gerbil was occluded by coagulation through the trans-tympanic bulla approach under general anesthesia with ketamine hydrochloride (80 mg/kg, i.p.). Thirty min after intravenous administration of BrdU (200 mg/kg), animals were sacrificed by transcardiac perfusion with 75% ethanol on days 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 post-infarction. Ethanol-fixed, paraffin-embedded blocks were cut coronally into 6 microns-thick sections at the level of dorsal hippocampus. Double-labeled immunohistochemical technique (avidin biotin peroxidase-complex method) was carried out with each antibody using 3,3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride and 4-chloro-1-naphthol as chromogens. The population of GFAP-positive cells and their S-phase fraction (the number of BrdU-positive nuclei divided by the number of GFAP-positive cells expressed in per cent, %) were examined. The data demonstrated that the regional GFAP-positive cells increased continuously between days 1 to 5 (105.9 to 528.8 cells/mm2) postinfarction (44.6 cells/mm2 in normal brain).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)