Lymphocytes and macrophages outnumber oligodendroglia in normal fish spinal cord.

As shown by staining with a monoclonal antibody against fish CD45, leukocytes are present in very large numbers in the fish central nervous system. Their subtypes were distinguished by electron microscopy and found to include all major hematogenous forms except thrombocytes, the most numerous being tissue macrophages and lymphocytes. As a population, they differ fundamentally from ramified microglia, the restricted form of myeloid cells present in the central nervous system in mammals. They are rare in most grey matter regions but are concentrated in myelinated fiber tracts as well as in certain strata of the radial glial network. The macrophages engulf discarded myelin and outnumber the oligodendrocytes in normal spinal cord white matter, where the density of lymphocytes is > 5000-fold greater than reported in rat.