Localization of glial cell antigens in the brains of young normal mice and the dysmyelinating mutant mice, jimpy and shiverer.

Tissue sections from the brains of normal, jimpy, and shiverer mice were immunostained by the peroxidase antiperoxidase method for carbonic anhydrase (CA) and the putative astrocytic "markers" glutamine synthetase (GS) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). The cells in normal gray matter that immunostained with anti-CA and anti-GS were similar to one another in size and process elaboration. In the normal gray matter there were relatively few GFAP-positive astrocytes. When present, these cells resembled the CA- and GS-positive cells; however, the GFAP appeared to be concentrated in the astroglial processes, as distinguished from the cell bodies. Glial cell processes, immunostained for CA or GS, surrounded blood vessels and unstained neurons in the normal gray matter. The glial cells in shiverer gray matter were similar to those in the normal gray matter. When stained for GS or GFAP, the glial cells in the jimpy gray matter appeared to be somewhat hypertrophied, and when the glial cells in this mutant were stained for CA, the nuclei appeared to be swollen. It was concluded that some of the CA-positive cells in the gray matter of the normal and of each mutant mouse brain could be astrocytes. The patterns of immunostaining in the white matter emphasized the different complements of glial cells in the mutants. In the normal and shiverer mouse corpus callosum, CA, in particular, was detected only in the oligodendrocytes, their processes, and myelin. However, the data concerning the jimpy mouse suggested that the few CA-positive cells in the corpus callosum of that mutant could be astrocytes.