Cerebellar astroglial cells in primary culture: expression of different morphological appearances and different ability to take up [3H]D-aspartate and [3H]GABA.

In non-neuronal cultures of cells dissociated from postnatal rat cerebellum astrocytes, identified by the presence of the marker protein glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), displayed two distinct morphological forms. One class was stellate in shape with radially distributed fine processes, while the other class was more varied in shape being polygonal or elongate. [3H]thymidine incorporation experiments revealed that cells of both morphologies were able to incorporate this nucleoside, suggesting the capacity for both cell types to undergo cell division. An autoradiographic study of the uptake of [3H]D-aspartate and [3H]GABA revealed that whilst the two classes of astrocytes took up the aspartate to apparently the same extent, only the stellate cells were found to be heavily labeled following incubation with [3H]GABA. A study of the cultures over a 12-day period showed that there was a disappearance of the stellate astrocytes. The time of disappearance was found to be dependent upon the initial plating density; the stellate morphology was apparent longer in lower density cultures. Time lapse studies suggested that one of the reasons for the disappearance of the stellate cells might be that in fact they underwent a change in shape following certain cell-cell interactions, but cell death also has to be considered as a further possibility. The relationships between the two classes of astroglial cells in these cultures is not yet clear. The possibilities are that they represent two different types of astrocytes, or just one type at different stages of differentiation, or maybe a combination of the two possibilities.