Disappearance of the post-lesional laminin immunopositivity of brain vessels is parallel with the formation of gliovascular junctions and common basal lamina. A double-labelling immunohistochemical study.

Previous studies revealed that during development the laminin immunopositivity gradually disappeared from the brain vessels, but temporarily re-appeared in them around lesions. The question of the present study was the correlation between the post-lesional vascular immunopositivity to laminin and the glial reaction. Following stab wounds, double fluorescent immunohistochemical labelling was performed against laminin (using a polyclonal antiserum against laminin 1) and glial fibrillary acidic protein. A number of vessels exhibited intense immunopositivity to laminin within the lesioned tissue. Where these laminin immunopositive vessels entered the perilesional brain substance, the astroglia formed contacts on them, and the separate vascular and glial basal laminae fused. The disappearance of the post-lesional laminin immunopositivity seemed to coincide with these phenomena. When monoclonal antibodies were applied against the beta1 and gamma1 laminin chains, vessels proved to be immunopositive at the lesion, but none in the intact brain tissue. No immunoreactivity was detected in the cases of alpha2 and beta2 chains. The results suggest that the disappearance of laminin immunopositivity may be attributed to that the epitopes become inaccessible for antibodies owing to the formation of gliovascular junctions and common basal lamina between astroglia and vessel. The possible role of an alteration in the laminin composition and the effect of fixation are discussed.