Abstract
Chronic treatment of rats with D-galactose (D-gal) can mimic brain aging process. In the present study, we investigated whether and how astrocytes undergo morphological alterations due to long-term D-gal exposure. After 8 weeks of daily subcutaneous injection of D-gal, total glial cells (marked by Holzer’s crystal violet staining) and astrocytes (marked by anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein immunohistochemical labeling) of the medulla of the motor area were comparatively analyzed in control and D-gal-treated rats. We found a significant increase in the quantity of both total glial cells and astrocytes, with a higher ratio of astrocytes to total glial cells in the experimental group than the control; astrocytic body size, process number and area, and glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactive intensity were also increased in D-gal-treated animals. Our present study provides direct evidence that chronic administration of D-gal enhances brain astrocytic activities, which may exert compensatory functions on D-gal-induced deteriorative neurons.
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