Isolation and characterization of glial filaments from human brain.

Abstract

Intermediate (8-9 nm) filaments of human central nervous system astrocytes were isolated from the gliosed white matter of cases of adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). This hereditary lipidosis is characterized pathologically by demyelination, loss of axons, and replacement of the white matter of the caudal cerebrum by a glial scar. Glial filaments were composed largely of a single protein component with a mol wt of about 49,000 daltons. Smaller components (44,000-39,000 daltons) were detected in some samples, and appear to represent degradation products of the filament protein. Human neurofilaments were isolated from the normal frontal white matter of ALD cases by the standard myelin-free axon technique. Isolated glial and neurofilament proteins comigrated during acrylamide gel electrophoresis in SDS. Polypeptides resulting from cyanogen bromide cleavage of the two filament proteins were the same. Both proteins reacted with rabbit antisera raised against isolated bovine neurofilament protein and human glial fibrillary acidic protein.

Coexpression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and vimentin in the central and peripheral nervous systems of the twitcher mutant

“…Increased expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) has been shown to correlate with reactive gliosis in diseases (Eng et al, 1971;Goldman et al, 1978;Smith et al, 1983), injury (Amaducci et al, 1981;Bignami and Dahl, 1976;Brock and O'Callaghan, 1987;Miller et al, 19871, and dysmyelination mutants (Jacque et al, 1976(Jacque et al, , 1978(Jacque et al, , 1980. In an earlier report, we demonstrated elevated levels of GFAP in both the sciatic nerves and the CNS, especially the brainstem, of the dysmelination mutant, the twitcher, a murine model for globoid cell leukodystrophy (Kobayashi et al, 1986).…”

Astroglial filament and fibroblast intermediate filament proteins in cytoskeletal preparations from spinal cord and optic nerve

“…[3,11,25,26]). This study clearly indicates the occurrence of interspecies variation of the GFA protein in its M r and in its peptide maps between 2 rodent species ( fig.2,4); in guinea pigs, the M r of GFA protein was estimated to be 52 000 (not shown).…”

“…Considering that glial fibrillary acidic (GFA) protein has so far been thought to comprise a single protein species (review [2]), and also that astroglial filaments isolated from human gliosed brain were mainly composed of a single species of polypeptide of 49 000 M r [3], the simultaneous occurrence of two polypeptides in our purified astroglial filaments re'quires explanation.…”

Expression of 300-kilodalton intermediate filament-associated protein distinguishes human glioma cells from normal astrocytes.

“…Indeed, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an IF structural subunit protein specifically expressed in astrocytes, has been widely used as a marker for astrocytic tumors (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Vimentin, another IF structural protein present in immature and some mature astrocytes, has also been shown to be expressed by astrocytomas (15,17,18).…”