Neurocytogenesis and tumor development in the rat

Abstract

The occurrence of vimentin-positive and GFAP-negative cells in gliomas induced by transplacental ENU in the rat is not yet clarified. Because of the temporal overlapping between neural cytogenesis and tumoral transformation in this experimental model, the expression of vimentin and GFAP in the developing rat brain can give some information. Vimentin is constantly present in the processes of radial glia; the earliest GFAP-positive cells are mature astrocytes appearing when vimentin-positive radial glia is still abundantly present. Transitional immunoreactivity from radial glia to stellate astrocytes, also with double staining in immune electronmicroscopy, is not demonstrable; the role of radial glia as a precursor cell to mature astrocytes is not confirmed. It can be hypothesized that radial glia is a target of ENU, and that its pattern of intermediate filaments is maintained in the tumor phenotype.