Immunohistochemical studies of water channel, aquaporins, in the brain.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Detailed immunohistochemical localization of water channel, aquaporins, in the brain was examined to understand water transfer in the brain tissue. In addition to the previous studies which described that aquaporin-4 was restricted to the perivascular cell membrane of astrocytes, I revealed that aquaporin-4 was widely distributed on the plasma membrane of astrocytes. This result suggests that aquaporin-4 plays very important role in water handling in the brain. In addition, distribution of aquaporins was examined in the mouse tissue. I found that aquaporin-5 is more widely distributed in the mouse respiratory epithelium than that in the rat. Aquaporin-5 in the mouse respiratory epithelium seems to play an important role in maintaining the respiratory function.