In vivo analysis of glial cell phenotypes during a viral demyelinating disease in mice

The specificity of the antibodies against the myelin protein CNP and the glial fibrillary acidic (intermediate filament) protein has been described before (Lee et al., 1984; McMorris et al., 1984; Sprinkle et al., 1980) . The 04 antibody stains white matter in cryostat sections (Schachner et al., 1981) and has been shown to react with sulfatides (Singh and Pfeiffer, 1985) ; however, it is not known whether it reacts with lipids other than sulfatide in the rodent CNS. Therefore, we performed thin layer chomatography on lipid extracts prepared from brain or whole spinal cord and reacted the separated lipids with the 04 antibody. Lipids from both brain and spinal cord yielded five bands which were recognized by the 04 antibody. Lipids from both brain and spinal cord yielded five bands which were recognized by the 04 antibody (Fig. 1) . The two upper most bands, which were moderately faint, migrated at the same rate as galactocerebroside (GC) standards (Fig. 1, right) . The next two bands (SF), which are dark, comigrated with sulfatide standards (which are also shown in Fig. 1 ). The lowest band (X) recognized by 04 antibody was less intensely labeled than the sulfatide bands, yet it showed substantial reactivity (X; Fig. 1, left) .