The golgi apparatus is present in perisynaptic, subependymal and perivascular processes of astrocytes and in processes of retinal Müller glia.
The Golgi apparatus (GA) of innervated rat and chicken skeletal muscle is present in a typical perinuclear location, and in subsynaptic areas where it disperses after denervation. It was suggested that the subsynaptic segments of the GA are linked with functions involved in the maturation and targeting of synaptic proteins. Similarly, the GA of rat myocardium is found in a perinuclear location and between myofibrils, adjacent to the T system of tubules. These findings raise the question whether the GA of polarized cells is present in a typical perinuclear location, for the performance of general "housekeeping" functions, and in distal areas, for the mediation of specialized functions. Astrocytes may contain GA within their long cytoplasmic processes which are difficult to identify in thin sections. To ensure the astrocytic origin of GA in otherwise unidentifiable small processes, we used transgenic mice expressing the rat MG160 medial Golgi sialoglycoprotein only in the GA of astrocytes, and visualized the GA with monoclonal antibody 10A8 (mAb10A8) which reacts only with rat MG160. Thus, we identified cisternae of the GA in distal perisynaptic and subependymal processes, in perivascular foot plates of cerebral astrocytes, and in processes of the Müller glia in the retina. A similar strategy may be adopted in future investigations aiming at the detection of elements of the GA in distal processes of neurons and oligodendrocytes. The functional implications of GA in perisynaptic astrocytic processes and other processes are unknown. However, the isolation and molecular characterization of the perisynaptic subset of astrocytic Golgi may be feasible, since others have purified the astrocytic glutamate transporter 1 (GLT1) from crude synaptosomal fractions in which astrocytic processes are probably unavoidable contaminants.