Primary astrocyte cultures prepared from neonatal hippocampus, cerebral cortex and cerebellum were morphologically distinct. Cells from hippocampus and cortex were almost entirely protoplasmic, whereas cerebellar astrocytes had many processes; in the absence of serum these differences were accentuated. We compared the immunocontent and secretion of the mitogenic protein S100B in these cultures. Immunocontent was 2.5 times higher in cerebellar astrocytes than in hippocampal or cortical astrocytes. Cells from all three regions secreted S100B under basal conditions, but the secretion rate was higher in cerebellar astrocytes. Secretion depended on protein synthesis and was increased by incubation with forskolin or lysophosphatidic acid in mechanisms which were additive. The stellate morphology induced by forskolin was reversed by lysophosphatidic acid in hippocampal but not in cerebellar cultures, suggesting that S100B secretion was not associated with a process-bearing phenotype of astrocytes.
