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Phosphotyrosine antibodies specifically label ameboid microglia in vitro and ramified microglia in vivo
Author(s) -
Lee Tillotson Meryl,
Wood John G.
Publication year - 1989
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.440020604
Subject(s) - microglia , biology , polyclonal antibodies , in vitro , neuroglia , antibody , stain , in vivo , microbiology and biotechnology , staining , immunology , central nervous system , biochemistry , neuroscience , genetics , inflammation
Using an affinity‐purified, polyclonal antibody to phosphotyrosine (Wang: Molecular and Cellular Biology 5:3640–3643, 1985) we have previously demonstrated that phosphotyrosine immunoreactivity is restricted to a population of multipolar GFAP‐negative neuroglia in adult rat brain (Tillotson and Wood: Journal of Comparative Neurology 282:133–141, 1989) and retina (Tillotson and Wood: Journal of Cell Biology 107:724a, 1988). In this study, we show that the phosphotyrosine‐immunoreactive cells are microglia. This conclusion is supported by numerous morphological and ultrastructural similarities between the phosphotyrosine‐immunoreactive cells and microglia. Furthermore, phosphotyrosine co‐localizes with the microglial‐specific B 4 isolectin of Bandeiraea simplifolia ‐1 lectin. Phosphotyrosine antibodies also stain ameboid microglia in primary cultures of neonatal rat brain. In addition, after 7 days in vitro, microglia are the only phosphotyrosine‐immunoreactive element in the cultures. This temporal pattern of staining in vitro mimics the developmental progression of phosphotyrosine immunoreactivity in situ, in which a variety of structures stain during postnatal neural development (Tillotson and Wood: Journal of Comparative Neurology 282:133–141, 1989), but only microglia stain in mature brain. The significance of phosphotyrosine‐containing proteins potentially expressed in a microglial‐specific manner is discussed.