Immunocytologic analyses of 10 nm intermediate filaments in the nervous system of Myxicola.

Antibodies prepared in rabbits against Myxicola infundibulum neurofilaments have been employed to stain neurofilaments immunohistochemically in intact Myxicola infundibulum nervous tissue. Paraffin-embedded and frozen sections (5--6 mu) were examined at the light microscopic level with Sternberger's peroxidase-antiperoxidase method, and Vibratome (20--40 mu) sections were studied at the ultrastructural level with Nakane's conjugated peroxidase method. The neurofilament antibody stained only neurons and axons at the light microscopic level. The staining pattern at the electron microscopic level corresponded to the neurofilaments within axons and neurons. Glial cells, which surround the axons, contain large bundles of filaments that resemble astrocytic filaments in mammalian astrocytes. These filaments do not stain with the anti-neurofilament antibody. Neurons, neurofilaments, glial cells, glial filaments, and nonnervous tissue showed no peroxidase staining when specific antiserum absorbed with neurofilaments was used. These structures were also unstained when antiserum to the glial fibrillary acidic protein of mammalian central nervous system astrocytes was substituted for the neurofilament antiserum. Therefore, in Myxicola infundibulum, the antigenic determinants of the neurofilament protein, as recognized immunohistochemically by anti-neurofilament protein antibodies, are not shared with those of glial filaments.