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Rapid morphological changes in astrocytes are accompanied by redistribution but not by quantitative changes of cytoskeletal proteins
Author(s) -
SafaviAbbasi Sam,
Wolff Joachim R.,
Missler Markus
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
glia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.954
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1098-1136
pISSN - 0894-1491
DOI - 10.1002/glia.1099
Subject(s) - cytoskeleton , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , microtubule , intermediate filament , microfilament , astrocyte , actin , cell type , rhoa , cell , signal transduction , neuroscience , biochemistry , central nervous system
Astrocytes have the potential to acquire very different morphologies, depending on their regional location in the CNS and on their functional interactions with other cell types. Morphological changes between a flat or a fibroblast‐like and a stellate or process‐bearing appearance, and vice versa, can occur rapidly, but very little is known as to whether morphological transformations are based on quantitative changes of cytoskeletal proteins in microfilaments, intermediate filaments, and/or microtubules. Using a cell culture of selective type 1 astrocytes, we compared the distribution and protein amounts of a number of cytoskeletal proteins both during primary process growth induced by specific media conditions and after secondary transformations induced by dBcAMP. Our data presented in this report support the idea that astrocytes can undergo dramatic changes in their morphology requiring subcellular redistribution of most cytoskeletal proteins but no quantitative modifications of the amount of the respective proteins. After pharmacological treatment with lysophosphatic acid and genistein we show that astrocytes can acquire intermediate morphologies reminiscent of both fibroblast and stellate‐like cells. These experiments demonstrate that the recently described RhoA‐mediated signaling cascade between the cell surface and cytoskeletal proteins is only one of several signaling pathways acting on the astrocytic cytoskeleton. GLIA 36:102–115, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.