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Figure 5 | Neural Development

Figure 5

From: Temporal-spatial changes in Sonic Hedgehog expression and signaling reveal different potentials of ventral mesencephalic progenitors to populate distinct ventral midbrain nuclei

Figure 5

Precursors labeled with Shh-GIFM at different time points contribute differentially to different rostral-caudal regions of DA neurons. (A) Representative schematics of sections immunostained for TH and β-gal. β-gal- and TH-expressing cells (dark blue dots) and β-gal-expressing cells negative for TH (dark blue circles) on rostral (region a) and intermediate (region b) coronal sections through the E18.5 ventral midbrain. The DA neuron containing areas are outlined. Early (TM administration at E8.0 (TM8.0) to TM10.5) but not late Shh-GIFM (TM11.5 to TM12.5) results in contribution to the rostral and lateral areas of the SN. Shh-derived cells with TM11.5 contribute primarily to caudal and medial areas of the VTA. dlVTA, dorsal-lateral VTA; vmVTA, ventral-medial VTA. (B) Schematic of the regions used to quantify the contribution of fate-mapped cells to DA neurons in a region-specific manner. RRF, retrorubral field. (C) Relative contribution of Shh-derived cells to different regions of DA neurons along the rostral-caudal axis of the midbrain. For each animal (n ≥ 3), β-gal- and TH-co-expressing cells were counted in four regions along the rostral-caudal axis of the ventral midbrain as indicated in (B) and normalized for the combined number of double-labeled cells counted in the four regions (in percent). Error bars indicate standard deviation. Significance (*P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001) was determined by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least significant difference (LSD) post-hoc analysis.

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