Expression and distribution of CC chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha/LD78 in the human brain.

Macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1 alpha, also known as LD78, is a member of a family of chemokines which recruit leukocytes to sites of inflammation. We have shown by Northern blot analyses that MIP-1 alpha mRNA is expressed in several human tissues, including brain. To explore MIP-1 alpha distribution in brain tissue, we immunohistochemically examined brain tissues from 13 neuropsychiatric patients. Glial cells in the white matter of brain tissues from four patients with schizophrenia and one with manic depressive illness were MIP-1 alpha positive. Glial cells in the cortex from these patients were negative, except in one patient with schizophrenia in whom neurones as well as glial cells in the cortex stained positively for MIP-1 alpha. In situ hybridization showed that MIP-1 alpha mRNA was expressed in both neurones as well as glial cells in this patient. These results suggest a heterogeneous distribution of MIP-1 alpha in human brain.