Neurobiology of human oligodendrocytes in culture

Abstract

Enriched populations of oligodendrocytes were isolated from adult human brains of 3-15 hours postmortem using the trypsinin digestion-Percoll density gradient method and were cultured for an extended period of time up to 6 months. Cell type specific antigens that were expressed by oligodendrocytes were galactocerebroside, myelin basic protein, proteolipid protein, 2'3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase and myelin-associated glycoprotein. In addition, HLA-A,B,C and HLA-DR, respectively, Class I and Class II antigens of the major histocompatibility complex, were demonstrated on oligodendrocytes. Three classes of gangliosides, GM1, GM4, and GD3, were also demonstrated on oligodendrocytes, while GM1 and GM4 gangliosides were detected on the surface of astrocytes. The presence of "transitional" or "bipotential" glial cells that were derived from oligodendrocytes and that expressed both oligodendroglial and astrocytic phenotypes was demonstrated. Treatment of the cells by cyclic AMP and its derivatives reversed this dual phenotypic expression back to the oligodendroglial trait. Electron microscopic examination of oligodendrocytes indicated that they were capable of synthesizing and assembling myelin sheaths in culture in the absence of any neuronal signal input.

TheGrowth Arrest-SpecificGene Product Gas6 Promotes the Survival of Human Oligodendrocytes via a Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase-Dependent Pathway

“…Although human adult oligodendrocytes can be maintained in culture (Kim, 1990) . These data suggest that additional trophic requirements, rather than the actual gestational age, are responsible for the inability to maintain fetal human and primate oligodendrocytes in culture.…”

Mitogen‐activated protein kinase signalling in oligodendrocytes: a comparison of primary cultures and CG‐4

“…They can also be cultured in the mature GalC stage from adult mammalian tissue; for instance, purified or enriched populations of mature OL have been isolated from cow, pig, sheep and human tissue (Szuchet et al, 1980;Kim et al, 1983;Smyrnis et al, 1986;Kim, 1990;Althaus et al, 1991;Kim and Kim, 1991;Stariha et al, 1997). The obvious advantage of primary OL cultures is that the cultured cells have direct in vivo counterparts, unlike artificial cell lines.…”

Use of Human Central Nervous System Cell Cultures in Neurotoxicity Testing

“…Legal abortions were performed in an authorized centre and permission for the use of human tissue was obtained from the local Ethics Committee. The percentage of oligodendrocytes that can be isolated from the foetal brain is very low (Satoh and Kim, 1994a), therefore enriched cultures were obtained from tissue samples of postmortem adult brain white matter as described previously (Kim, 1990). Essentially, human CNS cell culturing procedures are similar to those of primary cultures of CNS of murine origin.…”

“…Glial cells may be obtained from adult or foetal tissue. Primary cultures of dissociated human cerebral neurons (Kim et al, 1986;Louis et al, 1983;Mattson and Rychlik, 1990), astrocytes (Ponte n and Macintyre, 1968;Yong and Kim, 1987), microglia (Satoh and Kim, 1994b) and oligodendrocytes (Kim, 1990) have been established by several authors. The ®rst successful dispersed primary human neuronal cultures were obtained with peripheral nervous system neurons either from foetal (Scott et al, 1979) or adult tissue (Kim et al, 1979).…”