Immunocytochemical and electron microscope observations on astroglial interlaminar processes in the primate neocortex.

At variance with the rat, previous observations disclosed the presence of long interlaminar astroglial processes in the cerebral cortex of adult nonhuman primates. To examine its presence in human cerebral cortex, samples of frontal and temporal cerebral cortices were obtained during programmed brain surgery from a young patient with an intraventricular astrocytoma, and from one young and two adult patients with frontal and temporal lobe focal epilepsy, respectively. Samples of the visual cortex were also obtained at an autopsy of an 84-year-old woman without any known neurological disease. Brain tissues were processed for GFAP-IR immunocytochemistry. Long, interlaminar, GFAP-IR astroglial processes of usually 300-500 microm, but occasionally reaching almost 1,000 microm, were observed. These processes resembled those previously described in the cerebral cortex of adult New World monkeys. Available data suggest that they may represent a predominant characteristic in postnatal primate cerebral cortex. EM analysis of club-like endings disclosed a multilamellar organization of GFAP-IR intermediate filaments, and the presence of mitochondria and amorphous, electron dense material. Their possible function is yet to be determined.