Bratisl Lek Listy. 2022;123(9):625-630. doi: 10.4149/BLL_2022_100.
Most brain cells studies come from cultured rodent brain tissue, so basic questions about the behaviour of cultured adult human glial cells may remain unanswered.
Cells cultured from adult human brain have been poorly defined until now and are often termed "glia-like" based on some morphological similarities with astrocytes. However, the cells in question fail to express glial markers and may be well be of non-glial origin.
We examined adult human brain and cultures from 10 patients with non-malignant diagnoses. Immunofluorescence methods were used for glial and non-glial cell type identifications.
Confluent cultures contained the following: 0.1 % astrocytes, ≤ 0.01 % oligodendrocytes, 2-5 % microglial and 95-98 % "glia-like" cells. Astrocytes tested as followed: GFAP+/Vim+, microglia: Ferr+Vim+, "glia-like" cells: Vim+/Fn+/CK- or CK+. In the brain tissue, astrocytes were GFAP+/Vim+, microglia Ferr+/Vim-, fibronectin expression was restricted to brain vessels.
This report demonstrates considerable morphological and cytoskelatal dedifferentiation of cultured brain cells. Cytokeratins, specific markers for epithelial cell differentiation, were absent in the brain tissue. However, they were expressed in "glia-like" cells. This finding could be considered glial dedifferentiation given the ectodermal origin of the brain tissue. We suggest that "glia-like" cells come from currently unknown glial progenitor cells scattered through the brain tissue (Tab. 1, Fig. 4, Ref. 19).
大多数脑细胞研究来自培养的啮齿动物脑组织，因此，关于培养的成年人类神经胶质细胞的行为的基本问题可能仍未得到解答。
到目前为止，从成人脑中培养的细胞还没有得到很好的定义，通常根据与星形胶质细胞的某些形态相似性而被称为“胶质样”。然而，这些细胞未能表达神经胶质标志物，可能来自非神经胶质细胞。
我们检查了来自 10 名非恶性诊断患者的成人脑和培养物。使用免疫荧光方法鉴定神经胶质和非神经胶质细胞类型。
在融合培养物中包含以下细胞：0.1%的星形胶质细胞、≤0.01%的少突胶质细胞、2-5%的小胶质细胞和 95-98%的“胶质样”细胞。星形胶质细胞的检测结果为：GFAP+/Vim+，小胶质细胞：Ferr+/Vim+，“胶质样”细胞：Vim+/Fn+/CK-或 CK+。在脑组织中，星形胶质细胞为 GFAP+/Vim+，小胶质细胞为 Ferr+/Vim-，纤维连接蛋白表达仅限于脑血管。
本报告表明培养的脑细胞在形态和细胞骨架上发生了明显的去分化。组织中的细胞角蛋白是上皮细胞分化的特异性标志物，在脑组织中不存在，但在“胶质样”细胞中表达。鉴于脑组织来源于外胚层，这一发现可被视为神经胶质细胞的去分化。我们建议“胶质样”细胞来自目前未知的散在于脑组织中的神经胶质祖细胞（表 1，图 4，参考文献 19）。
