title: Ultrastructural characteristics of glial fibrillary acidic protein expression in epoxy resin-embedded human brain tumors.
abstract: Thirteen surgically removed, epoxy resin (Durcupan ACM or Epon 812)-embedded human brain tumors were examined for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) content in semithin and ultrathin sections with the immunogold-silver staining method. Mild aldehyde fixation and the hydrophobic resin embedding did not interfere with the antigenicity, since silver intensification of the immunogold marker provided excellent visualization of the reaction on both light microscopic and ultrastructural levels. The GFAP reaction was usually localized on the glial intermediate filament bundles, usually correlating well with the amount of filaments. The unstained filamental regions of two ependymomas might correspond to the vimentin expression revealed by double labeling in semithin sections. Occasional GFAP immunopositivity without filamental appearance was observed in one of the oligodendrogliomas, as patchy electron-dense cytoplasmic corpuscules, in Rosenthal fibers and in some mainly necrobiotic tumor cells, reflecting a possible connection with glial filaments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Albert Szent-Györgyi University of Medicine, Szeged, Hungary.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bozóky
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Krenács
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rázga
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Erdös
mesh_terms: D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004806:Ependymoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005910:Glioma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009837:Oligodendroglioma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016613:Plastic Embedding
chemical_list: D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein