Immunological Demyelination Triggers Macrophage/Microglial Cells Activation without Inducing Astrogliosis

Figure 4

Immunological demyelination prevents astroglial hypertrophy following dorsal hemisection injury. (a) Eriochrome cyanine R-stained parasagittal section showing the extent of the demyelination (*) in the dorsal column rostral to the hemisection injury site (I). (b) GFAP-stained parasagittal serial section to (a). Astroglial hypertrophy is evident surrounding the hemisection injury, but is absent within the region of immunological demyelination (*). (c) Higher magnification of box in (b) showing the edge of the region of gliosis within normal white matter above the region of demyelination (hatched line indicates the border of the region of demyelination). The arrows demark a few of the many astrocytes present within the region of demyelination. Note that these astrocytes are small and have short and thin processes characteristic of quiescent astrocytes, which contrast with the hypertrophic astrocytes within the region of gliosis immediately above. Scale bars: (a) and (b) 400 μm; (c) 50 μm.