Intracellular marking with lucifer yellow CH and horseradish peroxidase of cells electrophysiologically characterized as glia in the cerebral cortex of the cat.

Intracellular microelectrodes filled with either Lucifer Yellow CH, a highly florescent dye, or horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were used to electrophysiologically characterize and mark cells in the cerebral cortex of cat. Fifty-eight cells, characterized electrophysiologically as glia, were marked with Lucifer Yellow CH. All were identified as protoplasmic astrocytes, and included cells in the glia limitans of the molecular layer. An additional 54 cells, similarly characterized as glia, were labeled with HRP. The results were the same; only protoplasmic astrocytes were labeled. The "staining quality" of the glia labeled with HRP was superior to that of cells injected with Lucifer Yellow; greater lengths of individual processes were revealed, and they could often be followed to blood vessels where they ended on the walls of vessels with expanded perivascular end-feet. The observations indicate that the many previously reported studies on presumed glial cells in the cat cerebral cortex have characterized the behavior of protoplasmic astrocytes. Neurons were also marked during these experiments. The "staining" quality of the Lucifer Yellow filled neurons was excellent; dendritic spines, axons, and axon collaterals were clearly visible. These fine neuronal details were not as well revealed after HRP labeling. High resting membrane potentials (RMP's) were not a prerequisite for obtaining well-marked neurons (mean RMP of Lucifer Yellow filled neurons was -33.6 mV; mean RMP of HRP filled neurons was 42.3 mV). In contrast, the mean RMPs of Lucifer Yellow and HRP marked glia was -68 Mv and -75 mV respectively, and the quality of "staining" appeared to be more closely related to the RMP.