J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1992; 4:168-173
Copyright © 1992 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
Comparison of immunocytochemical and Holzer's methods for detection of acute and chronic gliosis in human postmortem material
JR Stevens, M Casanova, M Poltorak, L Germain and GC Buchan
Neuropsychiatry Branch, NIMH Neurosciences Center, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC.
Immunocytochemical staining for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)
allows more specific identification of astrocytes and their processes than
classical histochemical techniques and has therefore recently been used by
some investigators to quantify gliosis. However, although the
immunocytochemical method is superior for delineation of reactive
astrocytes, the examples presented here and previous work by others
demonstrate that chronic fibrillary gliosis may be best detected by
Holzer's method and not by GFAP immunocytochemistry. The authors' studies
indicate that if, as in a recent study of gliosis in schizophrenia,
computer-assisted densitometry is to be used to measure gliosis, the
immunoperoxidase method may not be a sensitive technique to demonstrate
glial changes in human postmortem material.
