Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is an intermediate filament protein specifically expressed in astrocytes in the CNS. To examine the function of GFAP in vivo, the Gfap gene was disrupted by gene targeting in embryonic stem cells. Mice homozygous for the mutation were completely devoid of GFAP but exhibited normal development and showed no obvious anatomical abnormalities in the CNS. When ...

The present study evaluates the time course of increased expression of the mRNA for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) within the dentate gyrus and hippocampus after unilateral lesions of the entorhinal cortex. Levels of GFAP mRNA were evaluated by dot blot hybridization of mRNA isolated from the hippocampus and quantitative in situ hybridization. For dot blot hybridization, RNA was isolate...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The brain-specific astroglial protein GFAP is a blood biomarker candidate indicative of intracerebral hemorrhage in patients with symptoms suspicious of acute stroke. Comparably little, however, is known about GFAP release in other neurological disorders. In order to identify potential "specificity gaps" of a future GFAP test used to diagnose intracerebral hemorrhage, we ...

A main neurogenic niche in the adult human brain is the subventricular zone (SVZ). Recent data suggest that the progenitors that are born in the human SVZ migrate via the rostral migratory stream (RMS) towards the olfactory bulb (OB), similar to what has been observed in other mammals. A subpopulation of astrocytes in the SVZ specifically expresses an assembly-compromised isoform of the interme...

Immature astrocytes and astrocytoma cells contain synemin and three other intermediate filament (IF) proteins: glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), vimentin and nestin. Here, we show that, after neurotrauma, reactive astrocytes produce synemin and thus propose synemin as a new marker of reactive astrocytes. Comparison of synemin mRNA and protein levels in brain tissues and astrocyte cultures...

Recent findings indicated a protective role of GFAP in ischemic brain, injured spinal cord, and in neurodegenerative disease. We previously demonstrated that 14-3-3gamma, once thought to be neuronal specific, was up-regulated by ischemia in astrocytes and may play a specific protective role in astrocytes. Here we report that 14-3-3gamma associates with both soluble and filamentous GFAP in a pho...

Astrocytes perform neuron-supportive tasks, repair and scarring process in the central nervous system. In this study, we observed glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a marker for astrocytes, immunoreactivity in the dentate gyrus and hippocampus proper (CA1-3 region) of adult (2-3 years of age) and aged (10-12 years of age) dogs. In the adult group, GFAP immunoreactive astrocytes were distri...

Malignant gliomas (MG), including grades III and IV astrocytomas, are the most common adult brain tumors. These tumors are highly aggressive with a median survival of less than 2 years. Nuclear factor I (NFI) is a family of transcription factors that regulates the expression of glial genes in the developing brain. We have previously shown that regulation of the brain fatty acid-binding protein ...

Jackson et al. (2006) have reported that adult glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP)-expressing neural stem cells (NSCs) also express platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor-α (PDGFRα), and that their stimulation by PDGF induced the formation of a glioma-like mass. Here, we reexamined the relationship between PDGFRα and GFAP expression within the three-dimensional organization of the adul...

BACKGROUND The present diagnosis of teratomas is limited to visual examination of their tissues. For the sake of treatment, teratomas are graded according to degrees of nerve tissue maturation. Mature fetal nerve tissue contains the astrocyte-specific intermediate filament protein, the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). This study aimed to investigate GFAP expressions in the nerve tissue o...