Glutamate dehydrogenase activity is markedly higher in a "Golgi-Bergmann"-like glial clone than in other astroglial cell lines.

Glutamate appears to be the neurotransmitter of granule cells, the major neuronal population of the cerebellar cortex. To determine the role of astroglial cells in the synthesis of glutamate, we have measured the specific activity of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) in clonal cell lines that might be the in vitro equivalents of the different cerebellum astroglial cell types. In conditions where GDH operates in the direction of glutamate synthesis, the specific activity of GDH measured in the "Golgi-Bergmann"-like clone was 4-6 times higher than in the "velate protoplasmic"- or "fibrous-like" astrocytic clones. These data correlate well with the intense immunoreactivity to GDH in Golgi-Bergmann astrocytes in vivo that has been recently reported.