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Non-neuronal cells in the spinal cord of nude and heterozygous mice. I. Ventral horn neuroglia

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Journal of Neurocytology

Summary

A quantitative light microscopic analysis of the ventral grey matter in the lumbar spinal cord of homozygous nude (nu/nu) and heterozygous (nu/+) mice was performed to determine the possible contribution of lymphocytes to normal C.N.S. tissue. If lymphocytes were present in the neuropil, they could be mistaken for neuroglial cells. Athymic nude mice offer a good model, since they lack T-lymphocytes and symptoms of neurological involvement. Mean cell counts from 1 μm sections were tested by analysis of variance. There were no strain differences for the area and number of neurons. The total neuroglial cell count was also similar, but the number of oligodendrocytes decreased 28%, astrocytes increased 51% and microglia were unchanged in the nude compared with the heterozygous mouse. There were no qualitative differences at the ultrastructural level among the neuroglia of either strain. Either the genetic defect retards and alters neuroglial cell development, or some of the small, round dark nuclei belong to lymphocytes, which have earlier migrated into the C.N.S. parenchyma. Lymphocytes could then participate in a cell-mediated immune response with brain macrophages, which are thought to be primarily derived from mononuclear leukocytes.

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  1. James M. Kerns

    Present address: Department of Anatomy, Rush-Presbyterian St Luke's Medical Center, 1753 West Congress Parkway, 60612, Chicago, Illinois, USA

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  1. Department of Anatomy, George Washington University Medical Centre, 2300 Eye Street, NW, 20037, Washington, DC, USA

    James M. Kerns & Martin J. Frank

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Kerns, J.M., Frank, M.J. Non-neuronal cells in the spinal cord of nude and heterozygous mice. I. Ventral horn neuroglia. J Neurocytol 10, 805–818 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01262654

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