EXPRESSION OF A COMMON ANTIGEN BY FETAL CEREBELLAR NEURONS AND ASTROCYTES

Abstract

Nervous system markers can provide information on maturation, differentiation,and intercellular interactions. Monoclonal anti-body 459 (ab 459),was previously found to react strongly with fetal brain,and moderately with adult brain. The objective of this study was to determine which neural cells express the antigen (ag 459) defined by ab 459. Brains obtained within 12 hours postmortem from adults and a 22 week fetus were frozen and sectioned with a cryostat. They were fixed with acetone, incubated with ab 459, followed by biotinylated anti-mouse immunoglobulin, and then avidin-biotin-peroxidase complexes. Ag 459 is expressed by fetal neurons in the external granular layer of cerebellum; these same cells were negative for glial fibrillary acidicprotein and neuron specific enolase (NSE). Ab 459 also labelled morphologically mature fetal neurons, which were NSE positive,in a cerebellar nucleus. Adult cerebellar neurons of the granular layer, which are derived from fetal external granular layer, and all adult cortical neurons did not display ag 459. Both adult and fetal astrocytes expressed ag 459.Ag 459 is the first anti-genic determinant to be defined on human fetal neuronsin the external granularlayer of the cerebellum. The expression of this determinant on these cells,but not their maturederivatives, suggests that ag 459 is a stage specific marker for cerebellarneuron development. Astrocytes assist in migration of cerebellarfetal neurons in vivo, and the presence of ag 459 on fetalastrocytes and fetal neurons raise the possibility that this marker may be involved in the migration process.

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