Hi Jan,

Sox10, GFAP and S100b are the best markers for enteric glial cells. For GFAP specificity, it is known that there are multiple isoforms. You can find some informations about this in the article in the following link

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24749759

Thanks for your answer Julien!

Do you know if there is any data on histological distribution of different GAFP isoforms in the gut? Do we even have selective antibodies for all the genotypes? It seems to me that there are a lot of papers are using GFAP anibodies with different preferences for specific isotypes of GFAP and this is the reason for some of the discrepancies in the results of various authors. I found out one polyclonal antibody for GFAP gives a clear and strong signal from myenteric glial cells and somewhat weaker in lamina propria and submucosa. On the other hand, one monoclonal GFAP seems to be more specific for glial cells in lamina propria. There is no info on the isotype of GFAP antibodies are staining. What do you think about this? Is there another way to overcome this problem since I have to be sure I am staining glial cells and two GFAPs give different signal.

GFAP staining can be tricky because of isoforms and specificity of antibodies. Also in relation with the expression of the protein that can be modulated (overexpression for example as a marker of inflammation in several gut diseases). There also some subpopulation of enteric glial cells which doesn't express GFAP (in submucosa plexus in human if I remember well). Histological distribution of different GFAP isoforms along the digestive tract remains in study in my ex-lab, I don't know if there any publications to report this. As a "pan"GFAP" maker, we used a polyclonal rabbit anti GFAP from DAKO which works well (IHC-F on whole mount) in diffrents species. The best way to be sure to stain glal cells is to made GFAP  co-staining with S100B or Sox10.