Figure 2.

Purity of microglia and astrocyte cultures. Microglia and astrocyte cultures from BALB/c mouse forebrains were prepared as described in Materials and Methods. Cells were stained for surface expression of the macrophage/microglia marker Mac-1/CD11b, for the oligodendrocyte marker O₄, or for intracellular expression for the astrocytic marker GFAP. Staining with control isotype mAbs is also shown. Cytofluorometric analysis shows that cultures are highly enriched in CD11b/Mac-1⁺ microglia and in GFAP⁺ astrocytes, with no detectable cross-contamination or contamination with oligodendrocytes (A). Phase contrast micrographs of microglia and astrocyte cultures used in this study are also shown (B). Scale bar = 50 μm.