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Fig. 6 | Neural Development

Fig. 6

From: Rac1 plays an essential role in axon growth and guidance and in neuronal survival in the central and peripheral nervous systems

Fig. 6

Abundance of DRG neurons in Wnt1-Cre;Rac1 CKO/− embryos. a Neurofilament (NF) and Foxp1 immunostaining of E11.5 brachial spinal cord and DRG cross sections. In the Wnt1-Cre;Rac1 CKO/− embryo, the DRG (encircled by white dashed lines) are reduced in size, the axons projecting from the DRG to the dorsal spinal cord (upper pair of arrows vs. arrowheads) are reduced in diameter, and the sympathetic ganglia are reduced in size (lower pair of arrows vs. arrowheads in the left panels). At this age, LMC motor neurons are unaffected in Wnt1-Cre;Rac1 CKO/− embryos (arrows in middle panels). N = 2 for each genotype. Scale bar, 500 μm. b Islet1/2 and cleaved caspase3 immunostaining of E11.5 brachial spinal cord and DRG cross sections showing a similar density of apoptotic cells in Rac1 CKO/+ and Wnt1-Cre;Rac1 CKO/− DRG, which are encircled by white dashed lines and indicated by paired arrowheads in the middle panels. N = 2 for each genotype. Scale bar, 500 μm. c Loss of Rac1 does not affect differentiation of neurons in the DRG (in the center of each image), as determined by Sox10, Islet1/2, and Brn3a immunostaining of cross sections from E11.5 Wnt1-Cre;Rac1 CKO/− thoracic DRG. The lateral edge of the spinal cord, which is on the right side of each image, is delineated by dashed white lines. N = 1 for each genotype. Scale bar, 100 μm. d Quantification of Islet1/2+ DRG neurons per 14-μm-thick cross section of E11.5 thoracic DRG. DRG sensory neurons were counted from 10 serial sections and averaged from three pairs of WT control (blue) and Wnt1-Cre;Rac1 CKO/− (red) littermates, with adjacent counted sections separated by four uncounted sections

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