Figure 1.

Characteristics of WT and Cx43-null neural progenitors. A, Double immunocytochemistry showing expression of nestin (green) and GFAP (red) in neural progenitors derived from 6 d adherent neurospheres of WT and Cx43-null mice. Note the coexpression of nestin and GFAP in WT and Cx43-null cells, suggesting incomplete astrocytic maturation. Scale bar, 9 μm. B, Example of spontaneous calcium oscillations simultaneously recorded from three WT neural progenitor cells (the oscillations of each cell are represented by a different color) loaded with fluo-3 AM. C, Developmental time course of spontaneous calcium oscillations in adherent neural progenitors that migrated out of WT (black bars) and Cx43-null (gray bars) neurospheres. The percentage of cells displaying intracellular calcium oscillations was obtained from continuous recordings (5 min) of fluo-3 intensity measured in 120 emigrated progenitors from three experiments.