FIGURE 5.

 Silencing of endogenous MAP2B in hippocampal cultures. Nontransfected control cultures show a homogeneous MAP2B staining (A). Counterstaining with phalloidin (indicative for f-actin) served as control for a second, nonregulated structure protein (B). Cultures treated with siRNA against MAP2 show an increased number of neurons, which show a weak immunoreactivity for MAP2B (C,G,K). The arrows mark exemplary neurons with most prominent down-regulation. Cultures treated with anti-EGFP siRNA show an unchanged immunoreactivity for MAP2B (E,I,M). Phalloidin counterstain indicates unaltered levels of the nontargeted structure protein f-actin (D,F,H,J,L,N).