The organization and solubility properties of intermediate filaments and microtubules of cortical astrocytes in culture.

The organization of intermediate filaments (IF) and microtubules (MT) and the solubility of intermediate filament proteins and tubulin in astrocytes which develop from cerebral hemispheres of neonatal rats in culture were examined using immunocytochemical and immunochemical approaches. Results of immunocytochemical studies demonstrated that in flat astrocytes which develop after 3 weeks of culturing in serum-supplemented medium, the IF containing vimentin and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) are concentrated around the nucleus and dispersed in an irregular fashion throughout the cytoplasm. Astrocytes which develop in serum-free hormonally-defined medium irrespective of whether they are bipolar, multipolar or flattened, have IF organized as a fibrous network of filaments distributed from the nuclear regions to the cell periphery. Under both culture conditions, vimentin and GFAP are resistant to extraction with low salt buffer containing nonionic detergent, indicating that the different cytoplasmic distribution of IF is unrelated to the solubility properties of vimentin and GFAP. Double immunolabelling experiments with polyclonal antibody to GFAP and monoclonal antibody to each alpha-tubulin or beta-tubulin reveal an extensive codistribution and parallel organization of IF and MT in all morphological types of astrocytes studied. Stabilization of MT with taxol, or depolymerization of MT with colchicine, cause dramatic changes in the distribution of IF and inhibit the extension of astrocyte processes in response to dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dBcAMP). In early stages of treatment with dBcAMP, renewal of culture medium without dBcAMP produces a rapid and permanent retraction of astrocyte processes, whereas in later stages the processes only retract partially and are then restored and maintained for several days in the absence of dBcAMP. The retraction of processes is accompanied by changes of immunocytochemical staining of IF with antibody to GFAP, which appears more intense and diffuse. However, electrophoretic and immunoblot analyses of detergent-extracted proteins from parallel cultures demonstrate that neither the amount nor the solubility of GFAP and vimentin are changed. Detergent extraction in MT stabilizing conditions shows that a substantial proportion of tubulin in astrocytes cultured in serum-containing and serum-free media is assembled into MT, most of which depolymerize on treatment with low temperature and Ca2+. Following long exposure to dBcAMP the proportion of cold/Ca2+-stable MT increases. The results suggest that the IF of astrocytes in culture are dependent on MT with respect to their cytoplasmic distribution.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)