Failure of plasma membranes of astrocytes in primary culture to insert exogenous ganglioside GM1

Abstract

Primary cultures of astrocytes derived from newborn rat brain cerebral hemispheres did not incorporate ganglioside GM1 into their plasma membranes when cultured in a medium containing the added ganglioside. This finding suggests that the function and/or structure of the astrocyte cell membrane differs from that of the neuron and oligodendroglia cell.