Mice lacking glial fibrillary acidic protein display astrocytes devoid of intermediate filaments but develop and reproduce normally.
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Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is the main component of the intermediate filaments in cells of astroglial lineage, including astrocytes in the CNS, nonmyelin forming Schwann cells and enteric glia. To address the function of GFAP in vivo, we have disrupted the GFAP gene in mice via targeted mutation in embryonic stem cells. Mice lacking GFAP developed normally, reached adulthood and reproduced. We did not find any abnormalities in the histological architecture of the CNS, in their behavior, motility, memory, blood-brain barrier function, myenteric plexi histology or intestinal peristaltic movement. Comparisons between GFAP and S-100 immunohistochemical staining patterns in the hippocampus of wild-type and mutant mice suggested a normal abundance of astrocytes in GFAP-negative mice, however, in contrast to wild-types, GFAP-negative astrocytes of the hippocampus and in the white matter of the spinal cord were completely lacking intermediate filaments. This shows that the loss of GFAP intermediate filaments is not compensated for by the up-regulation of other intermediate filament proteins, such as vimentin. The GFAP-negative mice displayed post-traumatic reactive gliosis, which suggests that GFAP up-regulation, a hallmark of reactive gliosis, is not an obligatory requirement for this process.
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Absence of GFAP and/or Vim in mice has no major effect under physiological conditions.
“Absence of GFAP and/or Vim in mice has no major effect under physiological conditions (17–20), reflecting the role of intermediate filament (nanofilament) system as a signaling platform in situations connected with cellular stress (21).”
From Attenuating astrocyte activation accelerates plaque pathogenesis in APP/PS1 mice (2013) · cites this paper as [17]
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- Authors
- Pekny, M., Levéen, P., Pekna, M., Eliasson, C., Berthold, C. H., Westermark, B., & Betsholtz, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- Venue
- The EMBO Journal
- Published
- 1995-04-01
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1590-1598
- ISSN
- 0261-4189 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2075
- PMC
- PMC398251
- OpenAlex
- W1551925364
- Cited by
- 336
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 7.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The EMBO Journal (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Swedish Cancer Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Skin and Cellular Biology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Connexins and lens biology
- Keywords
- glial fibrillary acidic protein, astrocytes, intermediate filaments, reactive gliosis, vimentin, hippocampus, spinal cord white matter, enteric glial cells, Schwann cells, blood-brain barrier, myenteric plexus, intestinal peristalsis
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Astrocytes, Base Sequence, Blood-Brain Barrier, Brain, Brain Chemistry, Female, Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, Gliosis, Hippocampus, Histocytochemistry, Intermediate Filaments, Male, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Mutant Strains, Molecular Sequence Data, Myenteric Plexus, Nerve Tissue, S100 Proteins, Psychomotor Performance, RNA, Messenger, Spinal Cord, Mice
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