Surface labelling of oligodendrocytes with anti-myelin serum in cell cultures from the rat brain. Light- and electron-microscopic immunocytochemical studies.

Antiserum produced in rabbits against purified myelin contains antibodies that bind to the surface of cells having multiple branched processes in live cultures of cerebral hemispheres of newborn rats. The identity of these cells was determined by double immunolabelling experiments with other specific antigenic markers (W1 Wolfgram protein, myelin basic proteins, glial fibrillary acidic protein). It was demonstrated that the cells are a subclass of oligodendrocytes which have reached a certain degree of maturation; nearly all of them contain basic proteins. Indeed, a number of oligodendrocytes, that contain the W1 protein, and may or may not have processes, are not surface-labelled in similar conditions. The usefulness of such an anti-myelin serum in the isolation of pure oligodendrocytes is discussed.