Electron microscope study on the glial filaments of astrocytes in the rat brain
With the electron microscope, it was demonstrated that the glial filaments existed in astrocytes and could be impregnated by Cajal's gold chloride sublimate solution. By this conspicuous structure of glial filaments, thus, the astrocytes have long been differentiated from other glial cells from the classical light microscopic studies till the recent electron microscopic observations. Further investigations could add the new knowledge on this important component of glial cells in this laboratory that the actin- like filaments might be contained among the glial filaments. It will be shown in this report that glial filaments of astrocytes are consisted of the heterogenous groups of filaments, and some of them can bind with the heavy meromyosins (HMM).Normal rats (about 120 g body weight) were anesthetized with Nembutal and fixed by perfusion through the heart for 30 minutes with the fixative. This fluid was consisted of 3 % glutaraldehyde, 2 % paraformaldehyde, 4 % sucrose and 0. 5 mM CaCl2 in 0. 1 M phosphate buffer at PH 7. 4.