Comparison of astrocytic morphology, proliferation, marker profile and response to neurons in wild-type and weaver mutant mouse cerebella in culture

Abstract In serum-free monolayer cultures of early postnatal weaver ( wv wv ) cerebellum granule neurons show decreased attachment, survival and neurite outgrowth when compared to wild-type (+/+) littermate cultures. wv wv Astrocytes display a more epithelioid morphology and altered proliferation. However, both morphology and proliferation of wv wv astrocytes were reversed to a normal phenotype by addition of purified small neurons from early postnatal cerebella from +/+ animals. Atachment of +/+ neurons to wv wv astrocytes was not significantly different from that of +/+ astrocytes and antigenic marker profiles of wv wv and +/+ astrocytes differed only slightly. Attempts failed to revert the abnormal wv wv phenotype in neurons by addition of gangliosides, triiodothyronine T 3 , prostaglandin A 2 , medium containing 1% horse serum, conditioned medium from +/+ cerebellar cultures, or by cocultivation with +/+ astrocytes. We would like to suggest that the primary defect of the wv wv mutation is predominantly an abnormality in granule cell neurons, but not of the vast majority of astrocytes.