Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) was discovered by Amico Bignami and coworkers as a major fibrous protein of multiple sclerosis plaques (1). It was subsequently found to be a member of the 10nm or intermediate filament protein family, specifically the intermediate filament protein family Class III, which also includes peripherin, desmin and vimentin. The GFAP protein runs on gels as a ~50kDa protein, usually associated with somewhat lower molecule weight bands which are alternate transcripts from the single gene.GFAP is strongly and specifically expressed in astrocytes and certain other astroglia in the central nervous system, in satellite cells in peripheral ganglia, and in non-myelinating Schwann cells in peripheral nerves .Antibodies to GFAP are therefore very useful as markers of normal and reactive astrocytic cells and neural stem cells. Antibody characteristics : 5C10 is a IgG1 class antibody with a κ light chain and was raised against a preparation of purified pig spinal cord GFAP.It is strong and clean on western blots and works well on frozen sections, cells in tissue culture and on formalin fixed histological sections.