Figure 4

Characteristics of protoplasmic astrocytes in the cervical spinal cord of G93A mice. Immunohistochemical staining of astrocytes using GFAP antibody (green) in (A) control mice showed cells with normal cellular morphology distributed relatively uniformly within spinal cord gray matter. (B) At 17 wks of age, astrocytes with large cell bodies and hypertrophic processes at high density were determined in media-injected mice. (C) Moderate decrease of reactive astrocytes was noted in the ventral horns of ALS mice treated with low cell dose. (D) Less astrocyte cell reactivity and more astrocytes with thin cell processes were seen in the gray matter of ALS mice with mid dose. (E) Only a few astrocytes with thick cell processes and enormous cell bodies were found in mice after high cell dose transplantation. In these mice, more astrocytes with typical cellular morphology were noted. Scale bar in A-E for full coronal spinal cord section is 500 µm and in ventral horn insert is 100 µm. (F) Quantitative analysis of GFAP immunoexpression in the cervical ventral horn demonstrated significantly higher astrocyte density in media-injected mice vs. controls of the same ages. Significant decreases of GFAP immunoexpression were determined in all cell-treated compared to media-injected mice with greatest decrease in mice treated with high cell dose. ***p < 0.001.