Characterization of adult human astrocytes derived from explant culture

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Abstract
Four different human astrocytic cell lines established from either epilepsy surgical specimens or cerebral white matter obtained during thalamotomy for tremor in a patient with multiple sclerosis were characterized using morphologic analysis, ultrastructural attributes, growth characteristics, and immunocytochemical analysis. Immunocytochemical characterization of cultures indicated a mean of 84% of cells contained cytoplasmic glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP): to confirm that GFAP (+) cells also proliferated, bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) uptake was measured in cell line. Our method of simplified explant culture allows establishment of astrocytic cell lines from a variety of pathologic substrates using limited amounts of human material.