Dye Coupling and Immunostaining of Astrocyte-Like Glia Following Intracellular Injection of Fluorochromes in Brain Slices of the Grasshopper, Schistoc

Injection of fluorochromes such as Alexa Fluor^� 568 into single cells in brain slices reveals a network of dye-coupled cells to be associated with the central complex. Subsequent immunolabeling shows these cells to be repo positive/glutamine synthetase positive/horseradish peroxidase negative, thus identifying them as astrocyte-like glia. Dye coupling fails in the presence of n -heptanol indicating that dye spreads from cell to cell via gap junctions. A cellular network of dye-coupled, astrocyte-like, glia surrounds and infiltrates developing central complex neuropils. Intracellular dye injection techniques complement current molecular approaches in analyzing the functional properties of such networks.