title: Immunogold electron microscopic localization of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in neurohypophyseal pituicytes and tanycytes of the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus).
abstract: The post-embedding immuno gold staining (IGS) technique was used for the ultrastructural localization of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in pituicytes and tanycytes of the neurohypophysis. IGS was applied to LR White embedded neurohypophyseal tissue of the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), a species which contains abundant GFAP-positive pituicytes and tanycytes. GFAP-immunoreactivity could be demonstrated on pituicytic intermediate filaments (IF's) in situ. Thus, it was shown that pituicytes contain GFAP in its filamentous form, what had been a matter of speculation. At the ultrastructural level, gerbil tanycytes and tanycyte-like cells in the external zone of the median eminence were characterized by a great amount of densely packed IF's, which were labeled by both GFAP- or vimentin-antibodies. Sequential immunostaining of serial semithin sections with GFAP- and vimentin-antibodies revealed an invariable coexpression of the two IF proteins in somata and processes of these median eminence cells.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anatomy, University of Münster, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Redecker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005849:Gerbillinae; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D010904:Pituitary Gland, Posterior / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein