Comparative study of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)--immunoreactivity in the rat and monkey cerebellum.

Abstract

Vibratome sections of perfusion-fixed rat and monkey cerebella were incubated with an antiserum to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Immunolabelled elements showed in both species a principally similar distribution but the presence of long, transverse branches of Bergmann fibres was found to be characteristic to the monkey cerebellum. It is concluded that current methods enable fine interspecies differences of GFAP-localization to be demonstrated. This bears a relevance to the use of GFAP-immunostaining as a diagnostic tool in neuropathology.